WDYTYA? breaks Mary Berry, BBC One secures 9pm slot
It’s very possible that last night’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One, 9pm) finally overstepped the mark as yet another familiar national treasure decided to look back through an old dusty book of pain in the vain hope of finding an inspirational tale.
Taking on the overwhelming odds last night was The Great British Bake Off judge Mary Berry, who spent the first fifteen minutes making ye olden daye bread, similar to the boring cutaway bits in the baking competition.
It wasn’t until the 79 year old came across her namesake in an old census that things took a turn for the intensely grim, with Berry’s resigned exterior crumbling under tragic news.
The show’s unique selling point is allowing viewers to pour over intimate details of a celebrity’s genealogy; reeling with the star as atrocious details and painful tragedies are uncovered (it really seems that living at any point in the past was a consistently horrid experience).
Last night’s trip through Norfolk’s past made Mary Berry cry, not once but multiple times. An audience of 4.9 million viewers watched uncomfortably as the nation’s pillar of stoic pride couldn’t fight back the tears after learning the fate of the other Mary Berry’s siblings.
Fans of Who Do You Think You Are? know that the inclusion of the term ‘workhouse’ in any given episode will not lead to a happy ending, yet Mary managed to claw some inspiration from the other Mary’s trials, netting the biggest 9pm audience with a 23% share.
Meanwhile at the same time, ITV was treading well-trodden paths with the second episode of by-the-numbers police procedural, Chasing Shadows (9pm). Staring Reece Shearsmith as – you’ve guessed it – a socially difficult copper who plays by his own rules, there was a fall in popularity from the opening episode.
Last night 2.7 million viewers – down from 3.4 million – tuned in for a slice of rule breaking and super-sleuthing and secured a 13% share.
Over on Channel 4, it was business as usual with another wall-mounted-camera documentary, with the second episode of Educating the East End (9pm). An audience of 1.5 million viewers tuned in to watch young students in their classrooms in the hope of some drama, resulting in a 7% share.
At the same time Celebrity Big Brother (Channel 5, 9pm) continued to attract the exact same audience it brings in every night (even the soaps have the good manners to stay interesting and fluctuate in popularity). 1.5 million viewers and a 7% share once again tuned in for the latest ‘action’ from the house.
A little earlier in the evening, the do-gooders of DIY SOS: The Big Build (9pm) were on hand to transform another needy family home, netting 4.5 million viewers and a 22% share.
At the same time on BBC Two, history was being rewritten, or at least rethought, as a lot of bespectacled experts and their scanning equipment descended upon the country’s greatest wonder.
Operation Stonehenge: What Lies Beneath was the culmination of a few years work, uncovering whole new structures and bringing in 2.2 million viewers and an 11% share.
Teatime brought a double dose of rural charm in Emmerdale, with a little bit of EastEnders sandwiched in between for good measure.
Emmerdale (ITV) brought another disastrous wedding to the little village at 7pm – it’s like the residents cannot ever learn from past events.
5.4 million viewers and a 21% share tuned in to see if Marlon and Laurel (who have both been busy snogging other people) would make it up the aisle, followed by 5.2 million and a 25% share at 8pm.
Despite most of the episode revolving around Sharon’s particularly nasty hangover, EastEnders (BBC One, 7:30pm) managed to grab the number one spot for the third time this week.
5.9 million viewers tuned in, hoping that Shazza’s particularly tough day wouldn’t be made worse by finding out that her fiancé Phil got nasty all over the garage floor with Shirley *shudders*. The unholy union brought in a 32% share.
The Social TV Analytics report is a daily leaderboard displaying the latest social TV analytics Twitter data from SecondSync. The table shows the top UK TV shows as they are mentioned on Twitter, which MediaTel has correlated with the BARB overnight programme ratings for those shows (only viewable to BARB subscribers).
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
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