BBC Four's Television Centre farewell seen by 1.4 million

Goodbye Television Centre, a special programme bidding farewell to the BBC's historic building, pulled in a big audience last night (March 22).



BBC Four's two-hour special, airing between 8.30pm and 10.30pm, averaged a hefty 1.41 million (6.2%) and peaked with nearly 2m at around 10pm.

As well as being the most-watched multichannel broadcast of the day, Goodbye Television Centre also helped BBC Four overtake Channel 5 in the primetime league tables.

The Goodbye Television Centre extravaganza kicked off at 7.30pm with a live hour-long Madness special, pulling in 792k (3.4%).

Richard Desmond's 5 network was unable to beat BBC Four in any of its slots, with World's Scariest Near Misses recording 739k (3.3%) from 7pm, Ice Road Truckers interesting 1.15m (4.7%) an hour later, and The Mentalist picking up 1.15m (4.8%) at 10pm.

Meanwhile, ITV's coverage of England's 8-0 drubbing of San Marino scored 5.11m (21.8%) between 7.30pm and 10.10pm.

BBC One's new series of MasterChef served up 4m (16.5%) at 8.30pm, after which a repeat of New Tricks had 3.35m (14.2%).