Game, set and match to BBC

Andy Murray

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Andy Murray's thrilling five set victory against Richard Gasquet to reach the quarter-finals of Wimbledon was a huge attraction last night as the audience peaked at 9.15pm with 10.4m (43.5%) on BBC1.

Both the corporation's terrestrial channels tore up their respective schedules to cover the game which Murray rescued three sets to two after being two sets down.

The final stages of the match were shown on BBC1 between 8.30pm and 9.35pm as Murray took the final set 6-4. At the time, a sizeable 8.6m (37.2%) were watching.

The live coverage of the game was over double the channel's slot average for the year so far of 4.2m (17.5%). Last year, the channel averaged 4.4m (18.6%) in that slot.

The coverage was a big draw with upmarket viewers with ABC1's making up 55% of BBC1's audience. This equated to 46.5% of all ABC1 viewers who were watching TV at the time.

Younger viewers weren't so impressed as those aged between 16 and 34 made up 19.8% of the audience but this accounted for just over a third of that age group who were watching TV.

BBC2 showed the vast majority of the game though and followed the match from 6pm until 8.30pm. The channel's entire coverage was seen by 4.3m (23.5%). The audience steadily grew and hit a high of 5.5m (26.5%) at 8pm.

BBC1 though showed the early stages of the game. It's entire extensive coverage – which included other games – attracted 2.3m (27.1%) between 1.45pm and 6pm. The audience steadily grew from an initial 927,000 (13.1%) to 4m (29.6%) in the final 15 minutes.

Elsewhere on the terrestrial channels it was all rather subdued. Even ITV1's two helpings of Coronation Street failed to hit the 8 million mark. The first at 7.30pm had 7.6m (38.4%) while an hour later 7.4m (32.6%) tuned in. At 9pm a new series of Police Camera Action! kicked off with 4.4m (19.2%). The commercial network's show was just slightly below the channel's slot average for this year of 4.5m (19.2%).

Neither Channel 4 nor Five made much of an impression with the viewers in peaktime. C4's most popular show of the day was Big Brother at 10pm on 2.8m (15.2%) for 65 minutes. The show drew 112,000 to C4+1 an hour later.

Earlier in peaktime the broadcaster launched its Disarming Britain season but was largely ignored by the viewers.

The Dispatches programme, The Truth About Street Weapons, could only manage 746,000 (3.4%) over an hour at 8pm with just 71,000 watching on C4+1. The ensuing Kids, Knives and Broken Lives faired slightly better with 997,000 (4.4%) and 69,000 watching on C4+1.

Five also struggled to hit the million mark for most of peaktime. The Gadget Show at 8pm impressed 840,000 (3.8%) which was followed by a repeat of Greatest Ever Blockbuster Movies at 9pm with 640,000 (3.5%).

All hours shares for Monday 30 June 2008: BBC1 – 25.7%, ITV1 – 18.9%, BBC2 – 10.9%, C4 – 7.2% (C4+1 – 0.4%), Five – 4.1%, multichannel – 32.7%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: BBC1 – 26.5%, ITV1 – 22.9%, BBC2 – 15.9%, C4 – 6% (C4+1 – 0.3%), Five – 3.1%, multichannel – 25.3%.