TV Overnights: Heather’s Farewell watched by 7.9m
Walford was in mourning last night as the day of Heather’s funeral finally came around, securing Thursday’s biggest amount of viewers for BBC One and a 36% audience share. As expected, the EastEnders service wasn’t your average fare, although it wasn’t quite as farcical as your typical E20 wedding or baptism. Devil-munchkin-child Ben Mitchell was somehow obliged to deliver a eulogy at his victim’s funeral and he came close to cracking.
7.9 million viewers tuned in to see if Heather’s goodbye would be a peaceful one (unlikely) and quietly question the dimensions of the shocking pink coffin. Nastiness aside, the parametres simply didn’t match the needed requirements of Albert Square’s George Michael obsessive. How much gas does a corpse lose in the mortuary? So much for 21 grams.
Earlier on ITV1, the first episode of Emmerdale (7pm) won 6.6 million viewers and a 33% audience share. The second episode at 8pm upped the teatime rumpy pumpy factor as Chas and Cameron buckled under the intense sexual energy and intoxicating aroma of stale beer. The antics, which took place in the Woolpack cellar, pulled in 6.9 million viewers; although it scored a smaller audience share of 30%. Once again Coronation Street defeated its northern cousin with 7.9 million viewers tuning in to see Sunita doing the crawl of shame back to number 7.
On the same channel at 9pm Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell took it upon themselves to reunite adopted children with their birth parents, as the second series of Long Lost Family kicked off. A suspect premise if there ever was one, the show cut back on those genuine, awkward and heart breaking moments. The positivity kept up at all times by Davina’s beaming smile which helped score an audience share of 21%. Surprise, Surprise in all but name, then. The show was actually let down by the fact that Davina didn’t break into song at the most insensitive moments; but it bagged an impressive 4.8 million viewers, with 217,000 of those watching the tears flow in high definition.
The sixth and final part of political epic White Heat aired over on BBC Two at 9pm. The drama, following seven friends from their Tufnell Park flat share in the 60s to the blue-honed present day, premiered with 2.4 million viewers six weeks ago. Last night 1.2 million viewers tuned in to see which housemate died unnoticed and alone.
It was all a bit more cheery over on Channel 4 with a night of comedy on offer. Peter Kay Live at the Bolton Albert Halls (9pm) featured his usual array of characters, with the stand-up gig from 2003 attracting 2.9 million viewers (a 13% share). This was followed by a one-off from Ricky Gervais, who came under attack from critics for his portrayal of a ‘simple’ character, even before the show had aired. In Derek (10pm) Gervais played the eponymous character, a retirement home worker, who’s life views and attitudes were in stark contrast to his grim surroundings. Gervais’s now trademark mockumentry style was utilised once again and the downbeat comedy ended up pulling in 1.8 million viewers with another 242,000 watching it an hour later on Channel 4+1.
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.