TV Overnights: Dev Alahan’s pain translates to gold for ITV
Simply not satisfied with conquering the weekday schedules, last night saw a British institution Coronation Street (ITV, 7pm) shove its way into our weekend.
The devastating after effects of 2013’s big set piece, the Desolation of the Rovers, was still being felt as the characters all struggled to deal with the loss of integral character Toni Griffiths. Not only that, poor Sunita lay on her deathbed, willing away the hours until her contract finally evaporated.
But the burden of last night’s hour-long episode lay solely on one man – Dev Alahan’s quivering lip and sad Gollum-like eyes were the true stars of the show, reminding everyone he could that the drama was all about him.
With one eye on the British Soap Awards 2014 Best Actor trophy, the corner shop tycoon left no character unaware of his struggles, blabbering in front of his kids, Maria and Marcus.
He even managed to take some time out from his grieving to personally accuse bumbling electrician Jason of causing the Great Fire in his usual over dramatic fashion, all the while Dev’s pro–nun–ci-at–ion was dialled up to 11.
8.4 million viewers tuned in to see the Street cope with the aftermath of yet another major disaster, with the double length episode netting the entire weekend’s biggest audience. Dev’s masterful milking of his current troubles pulled in a 32% share.
Speaking of milking, Sunita’s quavering husk had some stiff competition over on BBC One. At the same time was Sunday evening’s true champions Countryfile (7pm) – it’s kind of like Blue Peter but for boring adults. This week saw the awesome foursome head Herefordshire way in a frantic bid to get the best agricultural scoops.
Thanks to the unprecedented move of having Matt Baker meet some sheep farmers, the farming magazine show netted Sunday’s third biggest audience. 6.4 million viewers tuned in to Julia Bradbury’s dazzling revelation (there are llamas in Wales!), resulting in a 24% share.
Afterwards Antiques Roadshow (BBC One, 8pm) kept viewers excitement levels in check as Fiona Bruce continued to rummage through desperate people’s tat in Kent. The long running show attracted an impressive 5.1 million viewers but couldn’t compete with ITV’s offering.
After three years away period thriller Foyle’s War (ITV, 8pm) returned to screens, despite having been cancelled a while back. Series eight brought us to 1946 and despite the fact the war was now over, Foyle busied himself with infiltrating a new threat in London. 6.8 million viewers turned in to see the retired police man return to England to fend of the Russian threat, bringing in a 26% audience share.
The popularity of the drama’s two hour return affected BBC One’s own feature length prime time submission, Our Girl (9pm). The ’empowering’ drama saw EastEnders’ Lacey Turner play a glamorous but aimless eighteen year old who had enough of her dead end existence, chipping off her war paint and, eh, deciding to go to an actual war instead.
The one-off programme saw the audience jump by 1 million viewers once Foyle’s War ended at 10pm, resulting in an average audience of 5.3 million viewers tuning in to see a hungover Turner sign up to fight on the front line in Afghanistan. While the show fell short of winning the 9pm slot it still managed an average share of 22%.
Earlier on in the day, highlights of Formula 1: The Malaysian Grand Prix (BBC One, 2:30pm) captured an impressive number of early afternoon viewers as 4 million viewers tuned in to see Sebastian Vettel walk away with the Grand Prix. Vettel beat the likes of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Jensen Button (McLaren) for team Red Bull. An audience share of 27% watched as the German sailed through the race in a haphazardly put-together soapbox made out of a cardboard body with styrofoam wings (presumably).
Channel 4’s biggest hit of the day came late on Sunday as a herd of past-it OAPs decided to arm themselves with powerful semi-automatic weapons in Red (9pm). Robert Schwentke, the director of Flight Plan (silly but well made) and The Time Traveller’s Wife (UH-OH) brought us a tale of unhinged and retired black ops nuts brought out of retirement for one last…you get the idea.
The film held the attention of 2.5 million viewers for its running time, with an 11% share tuning in to see Dame Helen Mirren go full-on Terminator.
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.