TV Viewing Summary W/E 04/01/98

It’s the last big push of the holiday season from all sides this week. Coronation Street holding back their best plot line from Christmas, and choosing this week to put poor old Deirdre through the emotional minefields again. It’s four episodes this week hold the top four places in the charts, watched by an average audience of 16.90 million -certainly knocks Eastenders average of 14.85 off the shelf. So, what is to become of Mrs Rasheed, who seems to be making a profession out of destructive emotional patterns. Someone should give her a copy of the Celestine Prophecy, or maybe a couple of sessions in a “how to spot a potentially disastrous relationship class”. I guess we all know that she’s inevitably going to end back with Ken, perhaps they’re saving that one for the turn of the Millennium.

New Years TV was predictably dull. The New Years Day saviour came in the form of Forrest Gump, perfect viewing for that hangover / come down. It was just about one of the most popular films shown on TV over the season, attracting an audience of 15.08 million. The BBC also came up trumps with the screening of Mrs Doubtfire, watched by 11.89 million. ITV’s New Years Day offerings were just about the low point of its whole holiday schedule; yet another dismally boring Taggart (7.92 million) and more re-runs of Mr Bean (5 million). Let’s hope that this promised re-vamp of the network’s programming actually comes up with something a bit more exciting this time rather than just rehashing the same old stuff (Heartbeat, London’s Burning etc etc). Mind you, both of these still encourage plenty to stare at the screen: Heartbeat was watched by 15.20 million this week. Personally, this sort of wishy washy expedition into ‘golden age’ nostalgia has me reaching for the remote control straight away – makes you wonder what sort of zombies actually watch these shows. Still, shouldn’t be long until the fans begin to notice that Nick Berry is no longer in it, and thus the ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ should begin to falter. Re: London’s Burning, when are we actually going to see a fire?

This week’s absence of Friends allows Raging Planet to take the number one spot in the Channel 4 chart, watched by 3.87 million. Channel 5’s top show of the week was the movie Sabrina The Teenage Witch (1.36 million).

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