Shameless creator Paul Abbott’s new comedy police drama No Offence has the makings of an instant hit for Channel 4, launching with 2.5 million viewers, its biggest midweek drama launch for more than three years.
No Offence, starring Will Mellor, Alexandra Roach, Elaine Cassidy and The Thick of It’s Joanna Scanlan, had an 11.7% share of the audience from 9pm on Tuesday, up just over 50% on the channel’s three month slot average.
It was Channel 4’s biggest midweek drama launch since Shane Meadows’ This is England 88, which began with just over 2.5 million viewers (14.5%) in December 2011.
The Guardian said No Offence was “bold and rude but not crude. Dark certainly, but also – as you’d expect from Abbott – vibrant, warm, rich and real”.
Shameless, which propelled actors including Anne-Marie Duff to stardom, ended on Channel 4 in 2013 after 11 series and nearly a decade on Channel 4.
Penny devalued
Sky Atlantic drama Penny Dreadful returned for a second series with 188,000 viewers, a 1.3% share.
The big budget US co-production was up 364% on Sky Atlantic’s three-month slot average but failed to make the splash of its first series debut last year, when it began with 354,000 viewers, a 1.7% share.
Still slow
The latest in BBC4’s “slow TV” season, a two-hour unedited trip down the Kennet & Avon canal with no commentary and no music, was its most popular yet.
All Aboard! The Canal Trip had 506,000 viewers, a 2.4% share, from 8pm, with a high watermark of 599,000 viewers.
It was ahead of the 423,000 viewers who watched BBC4’s Dawn Chorus: the Sounds of Spring and its Handmade documentary about the making of a glass jug on Monday.
