Viewing figures for the second instalment of EastEnders’ “live week” dipped slightly after Tuesday’s two-year high, but still hovered just below the 9 million mark.
The episode, which featured a gaffe from actor Jo Joyner, was watched by 8.9 million viewers for a 38% audience share in its 8pm slot on BBC1. And the channel retained most of these viewers for its subsequent flour-and-fun extravaganza The Great Comic Relief Bake Off, which attracted 7 million armchair cooks (a 30% share).
The corporation’s heavyweight Henry VIII drama Wolf Hall continues to shed viewers – though beguile critics – over on BBC2, falling to 2.5 million. That was 1.4 million fewer than tuned in for the series premiere in January, a 36% drop.
Channel 4 documentary Junk Food Kids: Who’s to Blame? scored a reasonable 1.5 million viewers in its late-night 10pm slot, more than double the number who watched Jessica Hynes’ BBC2 period comedy Up the Women.
ITV1 staple Midsomer Murders continues to kill most of its rivals however, despite a low body count of just two slayings, in its two-hour 8pm slot. Just over 4 million viewers tuned in to watch DCI cousin-of-Barnaby Barnaby solve the mystery of who threw the hotel manager out of a window to be impaled on a spike.
