TV Viewing Round-Up: July 2013

‘Andy Murray – Wimbledon champion’, a phrase many naysayers thought would never happen. Well, during a steaming hot day on the first Sunday of July, Britain’s long, long wait for a male singles champion at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club finally came to an end.

With 77 years of history against him, 12.3 million viewers tuned in to Wimbledon Men’s Final to see Murray end that wait with a straight sets win over Novak Djokovic, ensuring that the modern generation will only think about Fred Perry in terms of fashion and not sporting hoodoos.

Joy to the world, a future King is born! Prince George of Cambridge’s birth proved to be a godsend for the TV companies desperately trying to reach the highs of 2012’s golden summer (though the less said about The Diamond Jubilee Thames Pagent the better).

With BBC One curiously deciding that people were desperate enough to watch a compilation edition of The One Show, ITV pretty much had a free run for the first public appearance of the Prince George Alexander Louis Windsor – at least until Auntie Beeb hastily cut the show and switched to footage from St Mary’s Hospital.

The extended hour-long ITV News, which saw Wills and Kate do the traditional new parent thing of addressing the world’s media, pulled in 5.2 million viewers – one of the rare occasions when the commercial channel came out on top in a (belated) head-to-head news clash.

Elsewhere Britain’s number one posh actor Nigel Havers got the Who Do You Think You Are? treatment as the gene hunting show returned for a tenth series.

Delving not too far into his family’s past, The Charmer actor was pleased to find that his ancestry isn’t as posh as people tend to think – thanks to an Essex family and some Cornish milllers. Perhaps this is finally the break Mr Havers has been looking for in his quest to play cockney gangsters or poor country folk.

5.4 million viewers were entertained – slightly less than ITV’s Long Lost Family which took a different angle on tracing distant family members (watched by 6 million people).

One of the more surprising hits of the summer could be found on Thursday nights on ITV, with Paul O’Grady: For the Love of Dogs.

Whoever decided that a show about the nation’s canines would make good prime time entertainment is probably feeling pretty pleased with themselves. The final episode of the series raked in 5.4 million. No doubt ITV has already commissioned a follow up series.

Also doing well this month was the returning Luther with 6.4 million viewers; The Apprentice: The Final (6.7 million); Hugh Jackman’s appearance on Top Gear (5.4 million); the opening episode of Law & Order UK (5.7 million); New Tricks, the last to feature the majority of the original cast (8.9 million) and historical drama The White Queen (5 million).

Top Programmes (excluding soaps):

Sky vs Freeview (share):

Sky vs Cable Digital (share):

Cable Digital vs Freeview (share):