Sunday 18th November 2007 BBC1 launched Cranford on Sunday evening, a major new drama series based on three novels by Elizabeth Gaskell. This costume drama is set in the Cheshire town of Cranford in 1842, a time when the railways were coming and the wind of modernisation was in the air. Cranford boasts an all-star cast headed by Dame Judi Dench and also including Philip Glenister, Sir Michael Gambon and Francesca Annis. Cranford was originally devised as a six-part series, but budget cuts led to a delay in the production schedule and the length was cut to five episodes. The lavish production must have cost a small fortune, but at least it proved a hit with viewers as the first episode won its slot with 8m (29.2%) between 9-10pm.

Friday 16th November 2007 Terry Wogan hosted the 28th Children In Need fundraising event on BBC1 on Friday evening, presiding over a line-up that included a live performance from The Spice Girls, the cast of EastEnders performing a song-and-dance extravaganza, and the BBC news team performing a number from the musical Chicago. This year’s event raised a record-breaking £19m on the night, and it also attracted bumper audiences. The first part (7-10pm) achieved an average audience of 9.4m (39.3%) – the highest performance since 2003 – whilst the second part averaged 4.4m (46.5%) between 10:35pm and 2am. The special Children In Need edition of QI also did well for BBC2, attracting 4.4m (19.5%) between 10 – 10:30pm while BBC1 switched to the news. Nothing could compete with Children In Need, and even ITV1’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! dropped to 4.4m (17.6%).

Monday 12th November 2007 The I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! juggernaut rolled onto ITV1 at 9pm, with a new batch of ‘celebrities’ lining up to take part in a dreaded ‘Bushtucker Trial’. Those in line for maggots-on-toast this year include former supermodel Janice Dickinson, singer Cerys Matthews and football pundit Rodney Marsh, but viewers won’t be seeing anything of former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren as he quit the show before he’d even set foot in the jungle. Ant & Dec return to do the presenting duties in their own inimitable style, and apparently the boys have already had a run-in with a venomous snake hidden among some electrical cables. ITV have introduced a variation to the format for this seventh series, with the celebrities being split into two competing teams (Snake Rock and Crock Creek). The sixth series started with 9.2m (39.3%) last year, and went on to average 7.9m (34.2%). It looks like more of the same for series seven as it got underway with a healthy 8.7m (37.8%).

For a more detailed summary of the week’s television, please visit http://www.attentional.com/blog.php