Sunday 30th December 2007
Billie Piper returned to BBC1 in a more genteel role than her recent outing as Belle in Secret Diary of a Call Girl on ITV2, reprising her role as Philip Pullman’s Victorian heroine Sally Lockhart in The Shadow in the North at 8.55pm. Last year’s drama featuring Piper as Sally, The Ruby in the Smoke, attracted an audience of 7.7m (28.5%), but this was shortly after she ended her run as Rose Tyler in the revamped Doctor Who, and her star was very high. It may have waned a little in the intervening 12 months, as The Shadow in the North, a ripping adventure yarn, gained a relatively modest 5m viewers (21.3%), and a TI™ of 91.3.

Wednesday 26th December 2007
Boxing Day was clearly seen as the night for period dramas, with BBC1 slugging it out with ITV1. The first to enter the ring was BBC1 with an adaptation of Noel Streatfield’s classic children’s novel, Ballet Shoes, at 8.30pm. This co-production between the BBC and Granada had (as does the book) an unusually large number of female leads, with some extremely well-known faces filling the roles – Victoria Wood, Emilia Fox, and Emma Watson being chief among these. The story follows three orphans in 1930s London who are adopted by an eccentric explorer who then goes missing, leaving them in the care of his niece. The story follows the three girls in their quest to fulfill their dreams – making it more likely to attract a female, rather than male audience. The drama averaged 5.2m (21.9%) in the 8.30-9.55pm slot, giving a TI™ of 90.

Tuesday 25th December 2007
The Christmas Day special of Doctor Who was arguably the most eagerly awaited programme of the festive period, with writer Russell T Davies pulling out all the stops to ensure that the episode (Voyage of the Damned) didn’t run aground. The action centred around the fateful voyage of the Titanic as the Tardis crash-lands on the stricken ship. We all know the version about the iceberg, but the history books never mentioned aliens and robotic Angels. A guest appearance from pop princess Kylie Minogue added to the appeal, helping Doctor Who to an average of 12.2m (50%) between 6:50 – 8pm (giving a TI™ score of 197.5). This stuffed the show’s previous high of 9.9m (for the very first episode of the revived Doctor Who back in March 2005), and made mincemeat of the 8m that tuned in for last year’s Christmas special.

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