The return of David Wicks sees EastEnders come out on top
Serial retiree Trevor McDonald returned to ITV’s screen last night to get up close and personal with shackled and dangerous women, in a jaunt to some of America’s harshest prisons. After the recent specials focusing on life on death row, it’s becoming clear that the veteran broadcaster has been developing a thing for incarceration in his old age.
Women Behind Bars with Trevor McDonald pulled in enough interest to fend off the competition in the prime time slot, winning the biggest 9pm audience. 3.5 million viewers chose to round off their day by watching Sir Trevor distantly interview manipulators, murderers and all-round precarious ladies, resulting in a 17% share.
Prime time scripted drama (a dying breed apparently) came courtesy of BBC Two as the acclaimed series Peaky Blinders (9pm) continued. Last night saw the period crime piece reach the halfway mark as Cillian Murphy’s unruly gang of hoodlums faced some difficulties from the IRA. Who knew Birmingham was such prime territory?
1.8 million viewers tuned in to see the terrifying gang (they manage this even though they sound like a poorly titled CBeebies venture) conduct some business in the civilised and sepia-tinted surroundings of the Cheltenham racecourse and brought in an 8% share for the channel.
At the same time on ITV, former presenter of The Really Wild Show Steve Backshall travelled across the globe to wonder at oversized animals in order to fill up an hour of the schedule. Super Giant Animals (9pm) saw the daring nature correspondent for The One Show justify his deluxe round the world trip by marvelling at crocodiles and sperm whales.
2.7 million viewers watched as Steve got up close and personal with an elephant seal (hats off to him – it was freaky big), resulting in a 13% share.
Speaking of observing vicious animals in their natural habitat, Channel 4 offered up another hour of Educating Yorkshire at 9pm. This week’s slice of questionably invasive voyeurism saw the claws come out when the stress of exams caught up with two BFFs.
Cheaper to make than Big Brother (the school takes responsibility for lighting, heating and keeping the reality contestants alive), the fly on the classroom wall drama detailed the crumbling relationship of Safiyyah and Hadiqa as their chosen paths began to pull them apart (air hostess and prime minister, respectively).
A respectable 2.4 million viewers tuned in to despair at the youth of today, securing Channel 4’s biggest audience of the day and a 12% share.
With Coronation Street out of the way, there was a level playing field for the two other soaps to duke it out for the nation’s approval. The first episode of Emmerdale got the ball rolling at 7pm as Amy Wyatt made a run for it with baby Kyle. 6.4 million viewers tuned in for the small town drama, with the audience dropping to 5.9 million for the second visit at 8pm.
EastEnders’ (BBC One, 7:30pm) habit of bringing back familiar faces seems to have done the trick last night as 90’s bad boy David Wicks reared his shiny head just in time for the dramatic closing drum beats. After a brief cameo at Pat Butcher’s funeral in 2012, the womanising lothario returned last night for a prolonged run, thankfully showing up in time to interrupt a romantic interlude between Carol Jackson and Masood Ahmed.
An audience of 6.6 million viewers was enough for the Walford soap to rise above Emmerdale, securing a 34% share and the day’s biggest audience.
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