Saturday 02nd February 2008
International rugby is back in the schedule again as the Six Nations tournament kicked off on Saturday, and the BBC has the rights. This meant a double-bill of games on Saturday, starting with a curtain-raiser of Ireland v Italy at 1pm. Coverage averaged 3m (26.9%), giving BBC1 a ratings lead between 1pm and 4pm. It was a strong performance, but it was just an appetiser for the main event as England took on Wales. BBC1’s coverage averaged 6.6m (34.7%) between 4:10 – 6:30pm as England squandered a half-time lead to lose 19-26, with a peak quarter-hour share of 37.5% at 6pm. This gave an above-average TI™ score of 138.

Thursday 31st January 2008
80-year-old actress June Brown carried a whole episode of EastEnders last night. Her character Dot Branning faced a difficult decision as husband Jim, hospitalised with a stroke, had improved enough to either return home or go into care. The 30-minute episode took the form of a monologue as Dot looked back over her life, dictating into a recorder for Jim to listen to. The fact that actor John Bardon (who plays Jim) is recovering from a stroke in real life further added to the sense of pathos, and you wouldn’t bet against Brown picking up an award or two with her performance. EastEnders averaged 8.7m (37.3%) between 7:30 – 8pm, which was actually down on last Thursday’s 9.4m.

Monday 28th January 2008
Ross Kemp continues his tour of duty with British troops in Afghanistan last night, improving on last week’s impressive debut on Sky One. The first episode of the Tiger Aspect series Ross Kemp in Afghanistan attracted 941,100 (4.6%) last week, but last night’s instalment (the second of five parts) improved on this with 1.1m (5.6%). This gave a staggering TI™ score of 555 between 9-10pm. The even better news for Sky One was the impact on the subsequent episode of US drama series Prison Break at 10pm, which made the most of the high lead-in audience to average 441,700 (2.9%) and record a TI™ score of 192. This was the 9th episode of season 3 (the first season on Sky), returning after a mid-series break.

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