Sunday 20th January 2008
BBC1’s dark crime drama Messiah returned at 9pm, with Marc Warren (Hustle) taking the lead role after Ken Stott’s departure. Messiah V: The Rapture actually has little to do with the first four editions, other than remaining a touch more horrifying than your average crime drama. The first of two parts attracted 5.5m (21.4%) between 9 – 10pm, giving a TI™ score of 93. It’s been a while since the fourth series went out in August 2005, averaging 6.4m (29.1%). Messiah is produced by London-based indie Great Meadow Productions for BBC Northern Ireland.

Friday 18th January 2008
It was a sad day for Coronation Street fans as Vera Duckworth (Elizabeth Dawn) left the soap after 34 years. Vera was killed off on Friday evening as she prepared to move to Blackpool with husband Jack, Unusually for a soap character, Vera died peacefully in her sleep of heart failure rather than being murdered or becoming the victim of a terrible accident. 12.4m (51.1%) tuned in to see Vera’s final appearance between 7:30 – 8:30, up by 1.8m on last week’s episode in this slot. The second episode of the evening at 8:30pm drew 11.6m (45.7%).

Thursday 17th January 2008
The current obsession with food was well-served again on Channel 4 last night, with lashings of Jamie at Home followed by a second helping of Dispatches: The Truth About Your Food. At 8pm, the latest series of 14 half-hour episodes from Oliver’s own production company, Fresh One, started with a double-bill. Both episodes were watched by 2.3m (9.7% share at 8pm and 9.6% at 8.30pm) in line with the previous series of 12 episodes that went out in Autumn 2007, when it averaged 2.2m viewers. The Dispatches programme that followed held on to most of this lead-in audience, being watched by 2m (8.6%), giving a healthy TI™ of 115.

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