TV Overnights: A patriotic Sunday see BBC One triumph
Yesterday, the TV schedulers protected the viewing public from St. Patrick’s Day, instead offering up a cornucopia of stoic British fare.
In the massive vacuum left by the absence of audience-magnet Call the Midwife, viewers were handed alternative nationalistic and nostalgic substitutes. And it seemed to do the trick.
Before the flag-waving kicked off proper, BBC One allowed its subjects a quick glance at the colonies with two hours of Formula 1: The Australian Grand Prix (2:20pm). The highlights, straight from Albert Park in Sunny Melbourne, saw Team McLaren (you know, the purveyor of children’s buggies) finish ninth and 11th in the inaugural spin around the track. The round-up of day one action attracted 3 million viewers and a 22% share.
Straight afterwards on the same channel was viewers’ first chance to stroll down memory lane and look all the way back to Friday night. Comic Relief – The Best Bits (BBC One, 4:20pm) contained more David Brent and significantly less screen time with Alesha Dixon’s painful faux-giggling fits.
2 million viewers, who missed the chance to spend all of Friday night being pleaded by rich celebrities to part with their cash, tuned in for the clips of all the top shelf skits. The compilation show attracted an afternoon share of 13%.
The flagship channel didn’t shy away from the celebrations altogether; viewers with of a green inclination were treated to a confusing Paddy’s Day gala with a special Song of Praise (BBC One, 5:30pm). Eamonn Holmes presented musical celebrations from the Waterfront Hall in Belfast in a rather drab and sober affair, pulling in 2.5 million viewers.
As Eamonn attempted to replicate the human expression of contentment and joy, ITV rolled out dusty schedule stalwart You’ve Been Framed! (6pm) over on the other side. 1.8 million viewers caught up with the latest mishaps ripped from the internet, lamenting the olden days when ITV used to pay £250 for a faked clip of your mate pretending to fall.
Which brought us all the way to Sunday’s main event. All across the country families huddled around tablets and TVs, locking the doors and taking phones off the hooks. 6:30pm meant only one thing – it was time to kick off the week properly with an indulgent hour of rural tweeness with Countryfile (BBC One).
Having fully recovered from the mass display of swooning after last week’s visit from Prince Charles, the Countryfile team were back to business as usual. The return to normality saw Matt Baker hang out in a real live bat cave (minus the superhero angle and actual fun), Tom Heap looked at the devastating affect the wet weather has had on agriculture and Julia Bradbury avoided pulling her weight by doing most of the links and set ups.
A whopping 7.5 million viewers tuned in and helped the ‘light and fun’ magazine show become the most watched programme of the day. An impressive audience share of 33% may help move the popular agricultural show into Saturday night’s 9pm slot – only time will tell.
If that simply proved too much excitement for a Sunday evening, ITV had something a little more frothy on offer. The beautifully titled Celebrity Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Best of Friends Special (ITV, 7pm) saw semi-famous people who are aware of each other join forces for mutual exposure (it’s like crack for semi-famous people). 2.9 million viewers watched as Olympians and former athletes behaved like best of friends, capturing a 12% share.
Viewers who managed to stay awake despite all the Sunday excitement were rewarded in the form of Fiona Bruce strolling confidently through another glorified jumble sale. Last night, Antiques Roadshow (BBC One, 7:30pm) travelled all the way to exotic Kent and picked up 6.5 million viewing stragglers along the way.
BBC One continued to polish off some old antiques at 8:30pm with The Lady Vanishes. For some mad reason altogether it was decided to remake the Hitchcock classic, with the cut glass accents and heavy sense of decency ticking multiple boxes for accepted Sunday night fare.
6.7 million viewers watched the reimagineered tale of mystery and abduction aboard an glamorous rail journey. The drama, which ran for an hour and a half, netted an audience share of 26%.
Over on ITV at 8pm was a two hour fan flick all about The Queen and the three times she smiled during her topsy turvy 2012. The documentary detailed her adventures throughout the year, from jumping out of a plane with 007, all the way up to the messy business with her dicky tummy.
The in-depth show, Our Queen, came across like an over eager propaganda machine but secured a strong audience all the same. 5.3 million viewers looked back and sniggered at such highlights as the depressing Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, managing a 21% share.
There may have been an absence of complicated pregnancies and traumatic breaching procedures but somehow the resilient Sunday evening audience kept calm and got through it.
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations.