Dame Judi Dench overtakes Jimmy Akingbola in 9pm factual battle

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Jimmy Akingbola’s documentary of his experiences growing up in foster care was unable to match ITV’s 2.1m (14%) slot average on a night of unscripted titles across the main PSB channels.

Jimmy Akingbola: Handle With Care was also behind Docsville’s single following Jeremy Paxman’s story of living with Parkinson’s for ITV, Paxman: Putting Up With Parkinson’s, which informed 1.5m (9.7%) in the same slot.

The hour-long film was overtaken by the second episode of Louis Theroux Interviews… on BBC2 which rose to 1.6m (11.4%) for an interview with actor Dame Judi Dench. The opening episode, where Louis Theroux spoke to rapper Stormzy, debuted to an audience of 1.1m (8.3%) at 9.15pm.

Channel 5’s one-off special, 30 Tips To Cut Your Bills also surpassed the ITV documentary, informing 890,000 (6.1%). However, it remained below the 1.1m (7.2%) average for the slot according to Barb data from overnights.tv. 

Leading the 9pm ratings was the final episode of BBC1’s police series Reported Missing, which drew 1.9m (13.1%). The series averaged 1.8m (12.6%) over its four-episode run.

Meanwhile, Channel 4’s political format Make Me Prime Minister came to its conclusion with an audience of 533,000 (3.9%). Twofour / Motion Content Group’s competition show averaged 592,000 (4.9%) across its six episodes.

The final episode followed The Great British Bake Off, which held a steady 4.4m (25.1%) for its eighth episode, which is averaging 4.6m (27.7%) across the run so far.