More than 400,000 viewers watched BBC4’s venture into “slow TV” with the dawn chorus and making of a glass jug broadcast entirely without commentary or music.
The most popular offerings in its slow TV season to date, Dawn Chorus: the Sounds of Spring, attracted 423,000 viewers from 8pm on Monday, followed by another 423,000 viewers for its Handmade documentary about the making of a glass jug. Both shows picked up a 1.8% share of the audience.
The short season of programmes began on Sunday with Frederick Wiseman’s three-hour tour of the National Gallery which, like the other films, was broadcast without any commentary or the usual trappings of modern TV. It drew 252,000 viewers, a 1.3% share, from 8pm.
The second Handmade programme on Monday night, about the making of a steel knife, pulled in 339,000 viewers, a 1.4% share, from 9.30pm.
The ratings are fairly typical for BBC4 – albeit for programmes that are atypical.
Tapping into a slow movement that takes in food, exercise and sex, BBC4 editor Cassian Harrison said it “would be interesting to make something that wasn’t continually shouting at you and coming up with the next climactic moment”.
The season continues on Tuesday with a two-hour uninterrupted, commentary-free canal ride.
Even slower
More than 4 million viewers watched 50-1 outsider Stuart Bingham win his first world snooker championship but its peak audience on BBC2 was down more than a million on last year’s final.
Bingham’s 18-15 win over Shaun Murphy drew an average of 3.3 million viewers on BBC2 for its final session on Monday night, a 15.5% share of the audience, with a five-minute peak of 4.5 million.
Last year’s final, in which Mark Selby beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 18-14, pulled in an average of 3.5 million viewers, a 15.2% share, and a five-minute peak audience of 5.6 million.
Game of Thrones – safe as houses
Elsewhere last night, Game of Thrones kept its head above the 1 million mark with 1.1 million viewers (4.5%) on Sky Atlantic for the fourth episode of its new run, having returned with a record audience of nearly 1.6 million viewers three weeks ago.
The penultimate episode of ITV’s four-part Christopher Eccleston drama Safe House drew 4.4 million viewers, an 18.6% share.
