TV Overnights: Bailey’s hangover from hell beats Silent Witness
Last night the campaign to keep Britain’s most famous street morally clean stepped up a gear. Moving on from the confrontational sit-in protest in Terry’s strip club, angry residents trod a more covert path last night. Weatherfield’s answer to the Scooby gang, Kirsty and Tyrone, dug around the old vaults of the town hall in an effort to uncover evidence of Terry Duckworth’s illegal dealings.
The first Coronation Street (ITV1, 7:30pm) of the night secured Monday’s second biggest audience; 7.8 million viewers (a 36% share) tuned in to see actor Alan Halsall use his ‘surprised face’ far too many times. The second helping came at 8:30pm and captured a smaller audience share (30%). 7.6 million watched Tyrone and Kirsty put a halt to evil Terry’s plans.
It would appear the former residents just can’t resist the magnetism of Albert Square, with another old character rearing their head last night. Mandy’s abusive mother Lorraine returned, from wherever these characters escape to, after a twenty year absence. EastEnders (BBC One, 8pm) narrowly pipped the first Corrie, pulling in an extra 2000 viewers, resulting in a 32% share. Lorraine (previously played by the actress who now plays Shirley), caused a bit of stress in Mandy and Ian’s relationship by claiming she was gravely ill. And it was all going so well before now.
If all the scripted drama was a bit much, Dr. Christian Jessen and his curtains were on hand to inspect ‘real’ people’s bizarre complaints. Who better to trust than a TV doctor and his camera crew? In the last episode of the current series of Embarrassing Bodies (Channel 4, 9pm), the ‘educational’ facade the show has been hiding behind slipped slightly, with Jessen almost squealing in delight as a woman with two cysts on her head came to him for some expert advice. The freak show was watched by 1.8 million viewers, Channel 4’s biggest audience of the day.
DC Rachel Bailey just can’t catch a break. You’d think after a second series of running around solving grisly crimes that she deserved a good old knees up without incident. In the final episode of Scott & Bailey (ITV, 9pm), Bailey came in to work after a hen party, was violently sick in the loo, displayed a fetching bloody gash across her forehead and had little memory of the night before. The audience was down 650,000 on last week but 4.9 million viewers still tuned in to see if Bailey did in fact Hulk-out and attack an innocent in a car park.
Silent Witness (BBC One, 9pm) must be celebrating the end of its rival’s run as the BBC drama continues to lose viewers as its own series edges closer to the finale. Pouty pathologist Nikki and her crack team tackled the bad guys, possibly of a spiritual nature. There was a blind child, a crazy nun and talk of demons; Silent Witness had the crazy dial all the way up, pulling in 3.9 million viewers (down 837,000 viewers from last Monday’s instalment).