It bombed!

Somehow, that blasted BBC film yesterday got under my skin, and had me fulminating all day.

That made the fisking over at Biased BBC all the more enjoyable, at it laid in to the programme, publishing two superb screen "captures" which we have reproduced here. Look at the site itself, and also at the comments, which are a delight.

However, revenge is nigh – and sweet. The BBC made such an enormous fuss over its selection of Talent (less) TV to make the film yet, according to the ratings guide, it absolutely bombed.

Robert Carlyle was talk of the town, making "a strong comeback to ITV" but he was "outperformed by BBC One's continuing Waking The Dead."

The first half of murder mystery Class of '76 pulled in an average of 6.23 million viewers (a 27.6% audience share) between 9pm and 10.30pm. The drama improved figures for the slot by around 1 million on last week but still finished behind its rival, which improved to 6.63 million (28%). Meanwhile, Channel 4's Wife Swap dropped to a series low of 2.59 million (10.9%) as Five's Hidden Lives found 1.27 million (5.4%).

Two episodes of Coronation Street topped the rankings with respective audiences of 11.79 million (52.4%) and 10.67 million (43.8%). EastEnders had 10.42 million (44.1%) for third, keeping Emmerdale in fourth with 9.74 million (47.2%).

And here’s the punchline: BBC Two's special debate How Euro Are You? went largely ignored, averaging just 1.18 million (5.2%) between 9pm and 10.30pm - even less than Channel 5.

And I bet more than half of those were Eurosceptics, watching the programme with their pencils sharpened, ready to blitz the Beeb. For the record, I made a formal complaint – no answer as yet, but I'll keep you posted. I'll give them "Europhobe"!

COMMENT THREAD