TV Viewing Summary W/E 14/06/98

The World Cup is upon us and even before England kicked a ball in anger, late night violence was heaping shame on the English (but enough about Stan and Ulrika). The biggest match of the week was the opener between Scotland and Brazil. Over 12 million people managed to sneak some time off work to watch the Scots put in their traditional performance of snatching a defeat when it looked like they might be able to hold out for a draw.

Of the other first round matches that were played in the first week, the most popular proved to be Jamaica against Croatia which had an audience of 10.23 million. In the early stage of the competition it looks like ITV is proving to have made the more popular choice of matches for footie fans.

Of course there was another big event on television this week, the Stars In Their Eyes Final was being screened on ITV. Although its nothing more than a second rate version of the Eurovision Song Contest over 10 million people tuned in to see the live event. Nearly as much watched to see a Neil Diamond lookalike win (although he did looked a lot like Steve Coogan’s excellent comic creation Alan Partridge).

A weekly television summary would not be complete without some mention of David Jason. 8.88 million people tuned in to the fourth showing (by my counting) of the final episode from the 1989 series of Only Fools And Horses, where Rodney marries Cassandra. The series in which I believe OFAH reached its comic peak still proves to be popular with the general public (showing exactly what people think of new shows like Holding The Baby and A Prince Among Men)

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Reviewer: Simon Wright