Sunday 06th January 2008
ITV1 drama series Foyle’s War returned for a sixth series on Sunday evening, with Michael Kitchen starring as a police detective in Britain during World War Two. The fifth series of the Greenlit Productions drama averaged 7.6m (33.3%) last year, and series six returned with a slot-winning 6.7m (28.4%) between 9 – 11pm to give a TI™ score of 103.

Thursday 03rd January 2008
Brighter Pictures’ Big Brother was back with a twist last night as Channel 4 launched Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack in a live show at 9pm. In a comprehensive shake-up of the format, 11 celebrities (including Matt Lucas, Jimmy Carr and Kelly Osbourne) take the place of Big Brother, setting tasks for the housemates and talking to them through the Diary Room. The collection of housemates has also changed – they are all British, they are all aged 18-21, and they are all exceptionally talented in a certain field (they include a conceptual artist, a professional racing driver, and a beauty queen who’s also a member of MENSA). The launch show attracted 3.1m (12.6%) to Channel 4 between 9-10pm, giving a TI™ score of 100. However, the programme was also simulcast on E4, where it averaged 325,500 between 9-10pm, and a further 172,900 tuned in to the catch-up services (C4 +1 and E4 +1). This brings the total audience for the first hour to 3.6m. The E4 coverage extended beyond the Channel 4 coverage, averaging 1.7m between 10 – 10:30pm.

Tuesday 01st January 2008
A bevy of new series heralded the arrival of the New Year, although only BBC1 costume drama Sense and Sensibility was truly new. Andrew Davies’ three-part adaptation of the Jane Austen novel stars Hattie Morahan and Charity Wakefield as the two Dashwood sisters, with David Morrissey and Dominic Cooper playing the love interests. The first instalment attracted 5.3m (20%) between 9:10 – 10:10pm, giving a TI™ score of 123. It was followed by the first in a new series of Jam and Jerusalem, the Jennifer Saunders sitcom based on a rural Women’s Guild group. Helped by an all-star cast (Saunders writes and stars alongside Sue Johnston, Pauline McLynn, Dawn French and Joanna Lumley), the first series averaged 4.8m (21.7%) in 2006. The second series started well adrift of this with 2.9m (13%), giving a below-average TI™ score of 77. Episode two is scheduled for a regular slot on Friday at 8:30pm.

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