Showtrial trails Vigil on debut

World’s five-part legal thriller claimed the slot as it beat competition from ITV’s Angela Black, which dipped to a series low of 3m (20.6%) on its fourth episode.

However, Showtrial was shy of the 4.7m (25.7%) slot average and was well below the opening of World’s recent BBC1 hit Vigil, which got under way with 5.4m (32.6%) in the same slot in August.

Most of the audience (77%) was aged 55 and over, well ahead of the 64% average, according to Barb data provided by overnights.tv.

BBC1 and ITV were ahead of Channel 5’s A Year in Provence (800,000 / 5.3%), BBC2’s The Ranganation (792,000 / 5.3%) and Channel 4 film Widows, which averaged 600,000 until 11.30pm.

Across the 8pm hour, ITV’s The Larkins won the spoils with a steady 3.8m (22.9%), ahead of the final ep of BBC1 natural history series The Mating Game (2.9m / 17%).

Over five parts, the latter informed 3.1m (19%), down on the 5m (26%) who watched two-parter Attenborough’s Life in Colour in a 7pm slot in February.

Friday 

BBC1 and C4 shared the spoils at 9pm, with Have I Got News for You and Googlebox sharing 3.3m apiece.

The shares were near-identical too, with C4’s heavyweight pipping the satirical news quiz show (21.9% compared to 21.4%). Both comfortably exceeded their respective benchmarks of 3.1m/17.4% (BBC1) and 2.9m/16.8% (C4). 

Elsewhere, the penultimate episode Walking Britain’s Lost Railways series four on C5 drew 700,000 (4.6%), below the 810,000/4.7% slot average and down from the series high of 756,000/4.6% last week. However, it was an improvement on the opener (683,000/5%). 

In a battle of repeated dramas, ITV won out with Midsomer Murders engrossing 1.6m (10.8%) across its 90-minute broadcast from 8.30pm, with Vienna Blood only achieving 630,000 (4.5%) from 9pm on BBC2.

Saturday 

The revival of classic gameshow Blankety Blank continued to prove a hit for BBC1, with its 4.7m (31%) smashing past the 3.9m/23.8% benchmark to win the 9pm slot. This was ahead of ITV’s gameshow The Cube, which entertained 2m (12.4%) across the hour from 8.30pm.

On C5, The Madame Blanc Mysteries reached its halfway point with 1.5m (10.1%), in line with the series average and comfortably above the 999,000/6.2% benchmark. C4’s feature The Great Wall brought up the rear with 450,000 (3.4%).  

At 9.30pm, ITV’s Halloween special of Spitting Image amused 2m (14.1%), coming in short of the 2.6m (16.7%) slot average.