Who Do You Think You Are? returns with 4.6m for BBC One
Thursday night saw the return of one of the BBC’s most enduring factual formats as Birmingham-born actress Julie Walters had her turn on the emotional historical merry-go-round that is Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One, 9pm).
Getting semi-famous faces to cry has always proved a sure-fire way to get the audience watching, but this particular show’s natch for weaving a dramatic journey through historical narrative helps it stand apart from the crop of recent imitators.
Last night viewers watched as Walters tracked her ancestors all the way back to sunny Westport in the west of Ireland, with the actress uncovering the injustice heaped upon the country’s tenant farmers and her own family members who stood up to the English Absentee landlords.
4.6 million viewers tuned in to see all the virtue counterbalanced by the discovery of an apparently drunken and violent spree though Westport’s High Street, resulting in a 23% share and the biggest 9pm audience.
At the same time on BBC Two, The Honourable Woman (9pm) hurtled towards its conclusion as Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Nessa uncovered a few stinging truths. The tense international drama about betrayal and politics continued to secure its standard niche audience, with 1.5 million viewers and an 8% share tuning in for the sixth episode.
Over on ITV and fresh from a slew of narrating jobs focusing on dogs, cats and horses, Martin Clunes was on hand to talk us through some footage shot by sick children at Newcastle’s Great North Children’s Hospital.
Kids with Cameras: Diary of a Children’s Ward (9pm) did exactly what it said on the tin and while this unique approach might seem archaic compared to Channel 4’s rigged-camera obsessed documentaries, last night’s gimmick certainly helped the show stand out from the crowd.
The obvious and manipulative hour with ill children (who hopefully are fully paid up members of the TV Cameraman Guild) was watched by 1.4 million viewers and a 7% share.
On Channel 4 at 9pm it was time for Dr Christian and Dr Pixie to slap on those terrifying latex medical gloves as some members of society cued up for an extremely public examination on Embarrassing Bodies.
The latest round of overshares and damaged dangly bits was watched by 1.3 million viewers and a 7% share.
Meanwhile, it was time for Channel 5’s weekly dive into the pool of utter tastelessness in the fun post-mortem show, Autopsy: The last Hours of… (9pm). This week’s lucky focus of fake friends and questionable medical ‘professionals’ was Hollywood starlet Brittany Murphy who passed away in 2009.
The channel’s second biggest audience of the day (after Big Brother at 10pm with 1.1 million viewers) tuned in to see the documentary leave no organ or enzyme unturned, resulting in 847,000 viewers and a 4% share.
An hour earlier, George Clarke was finally ready to crown the Amazing Spaces Shed of the Year (Channel 4, 8pm) after two weeks of repeating clips and general procrastination.
The third and final episode treated viewers to more unique builds dotted around gardens across the country, netting 1.3 million viewers and a 7% share
A little earlier in the day there was a chaotic clash of two top soaps as the second half of an hour-long EastEnders (BBC One, 7:30pm) battled with the second Emmerdale (ITV) episode of the day.
In the past, putting these two soaps head-to-head has seen both sides lose out significantly, and last night was no exception.
A little under 5 million viewers watched the 7pm episode, resulting in a 30% share.
Over on BBC One, 5.6 million viewers – yesterday’s biggest audience – watched as Danny Dyer’s Mick Carter was arrested for a spot of curb crawling, translating to a 30% share.
Unfortunately all the mistaken hustling action on EastEnders saw the countryside drama of Emmerdale at 8:30pm plummet to a paltry 3.7 million viewers and a 19% 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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