Politician's Husband secures 2.5m for BBC2

Paula Milne’s three part drama starring David Tennant and Emily Watson got off to a strong start, easily trumping the slot average of 1.7m (7.5%) for the last 12 months according to Barb data from Attentional.

The Daybreak Pictures series, set in the corridors of Westminster, held a steady audience across the 9pm hour, after peaking with 2.6m (11.6%) in the five minutes from 9.05pm.

It was also ahead of White Heat, the social history drama also written by Milne, which launched in the same time slot on BBC2 in March 2012 to an overnight audience of 2.3m (8.4%).

It was followed by sketch show Watson & Oliver, which failed to tap into its potential inherited audience as it returned for a second series with a below par 900k (4.9%).

It was below the series one debut of 1.05m (5.4%) and significantly down on the 1.7m (7.8% slot average.

A repeat of the blue-light doc, scheduled to replace The Intern which was switched to air in an 11pm Wednesday slot, outperformed the Hilary Devey-fronted origination.

After launching with 1.3m (5.6%), The Intern had slumped to average 964k (4.2%) after its first three episodes.     

The London club’s last gasp winner in the semi-final first leg tie peaked with 4.5m (20.2%) in the five minutes from 8.45pm.

The two-part animal doc broadly held its audience, posting an average of 3.4m (15.5%).

The medical drama fell to a series low in its third part, pulling its average down to 1.4m (6.5%).

Part two of the drama strand, which saw Ian Hart play John Lennon in a scenario where he left The Beatles before they became famous, was down on last week’s 70k (0.3%) but remained with an audience twice the size of the 29k (0.1%) slot average.