‘Love is in the air, everywhere I look around’, unless of course you happen to live in Albert Square. BBC1’s decision to show an extra Valentine’s Day edition of Eastenders, which featured the death of Saskia, had the effect of reducing the audience for ITV’s Heartbeat. The special attracted 12.97 million viewers and featured Grant going through his usual seduction routine of closing the Queen Vic with one of the barmaids, then suggesting they go upstairs ‘for a chat’.
Channel 5 decided to devote over six hours of air time to love themed programming, but it would appear to have proved a turn off for viewers. The most watched programme was the Tom Hanks film Everytime We Say Goodbye, which was watched by 1.15 million people.
ITV’s one and only contribution to Valentine’s Day was the disco featured in Coronation Street. Sunday’s episode was watched by 17.06 million people, who had the misfortune to see various members of the cast dressed in seventies attire.
On the subject of bad seventies clothing, ITV’s latest attempt at comedy, Days Like These, has not succeeded in capturing a large number of viewers. The first episode of the 13-part series, which is being produced by US sitcom team Carsey Werner, only attracted 6.11 million viewers. This compares to the 7.6 million people who tuned into to watch a repeated episode of BBC1’s Birds of a Feather.
Reviewer: Simon Wright
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