Tues ratings: Great British Bake Off, Fresh Meat, Paradise

The Great British Bake Off hit a series high for BBC Two last night, while Fresh Meat struggled to gain a foothold on Channel 4.



Bake Off stormed ahead of BBC One's popular Holby City for the first time as Danny Bryden made her departure, averaging 5.61m (23.7%) in the 8pm hour and peaking with at least 6m as the result was announced.

ack Whitehall sitcom Fresh Meat returned with 878k (5.4%) on Channel 4 at 10pm, a considerable drop on its first series opener last September. This comes as a blow for Channel 4, after Friday Night Dinner debuted poorly in its new Sunday night slot.

BBC One drama The Paradise managed to reverse its decline in week three, inching up to 4.88m (21.6%) at 9pm. Meanwhile, ITV's screening Mamma Mia! could only muster 2.28m (9.9%) from 8pm (+1: 210k/1.1%) - the channel's previous airing of the family movie did considerably better.

Elsewhere in the 9pm hour, BBC Two's Ian Hislop's Stiff Upper Lip interested 2.27m (10.1%), Jewish Mum of the Year took 1.16m (5.1%) for Channel 4 (+1: 226k/1.4%), and Person of Interest attracted 1.15m (5.1%) to Channel 5 (+1: 126k/0.8%).

Overall, BBC One led primetime with a 23.4% share, nearly double ITV1's 12.9% (+1: 0.8%). BBC Two edged closer to ITV with an excellent 10.9% in third place, ahead of Channel 4's 4.9% (+1: 0.9%), and Channel 5's 3.7% (+1: 0.3%).

Don't Tell the Bride entertained 873k (3.9%) on BBC Three in the 9pm hour, while sitcom Cuckoo (593k/3.2%) fell again at 10pm.