TV Viewing Summary W/E 08/02/98
A pretty straight forward top ten this week, with Coronation Street taking all of the top four places, and scoring an average audience figure of 16.87 million. Eastenders lines up with the next three slots in the top ten, watched by an average audience of 14.53 million.
Well, yet again I can’t really find anything particularly positive to say about Eastenders. The whole ‘Kaff’ and ‘Fill’ thing is dragging on way beyond its sell-by-date as a viable and indeed entertaining plot line. The arrival of the di Marco family sees the scriptwriters falling back onto the sort of pseudo East End gangster storyline that they always rely on when things get tough. The only current light relief is being provided by Terry Raymond (Tiff’s Dad). Terry is shaping up to be the Duckworth/Gilroy of the East End, displaying all the proper work-shy and lethargic characteristics, and with great aptitude too. His constant public declarations of love for the rather haggard Mrs Hills cause as much astonishment to her face as anyone else’s. This one is definitely shaping up for a large fall somewhere in the future, and it promises to be a good one!
At the end of the day, none of it comes close to ‘Coro‘, the champion of soaps which is just moving from strength to strength. Unlike its rivals this is achieved by branching out and not treading the same ‘dramatic water’ over and over again. This was the week when Nick and Leanne announced their marriage to the parents on both sides of the street. Gail’s reaction was of course what we’d expect from the stereotyped, overworked and highly strung mother of three.
The best response was without doubt that of Sarah Louise (Gail’s eight year old daughter). On being informed of her brother’s rather premature marriage she came out with the congratulatory response of “yuk”. Quite right too. The Battersby family gave us the greatest joy. Les complained on being disturbed from the TV when he was told the news, and then followed this up with “congratulations Nicholas lad, you’ve made a good choice”. He was even happier when it was pointed out to him that he’d been able to marry off his eldest daughter without spending a penny (no pun intended).
On the drama side of things the brilliant Jonathan Creek picks up a slightly larger audience than normal, attracting 10.49 million. This was probably due to the guest appearance of Bob Monkhouse, who was actually quite good: perhaps a surprise for those who may have previously scoffed at Monkhouse’s acting abilities. Heartbeat stays as the top drama of the week (13.94 million), closely followed by Casualty (13.22 million). Over on Channel 4 E.R. continues on its downward spiral, this week only just making it into the Channel’s top ten, watched by 3.50 million. The thin veneer that once covered this hopeless drama is becoming more transparent as the weeks go by.
Comedy is really suffering on our screens at the moment. Birds Of A Feather (10.98 million) is just about the only comedy to feature in the top thirty chart this week – not long till the new series of Father Ted.
To make comments on this TV Summary, take a look at the Media Pub in the Media Village.
Subscribers can access the TV database by selecting “Television” from the drop-down box at the top of this page.