Caroline Aherne's 'The Security Men' attracts 4.8m on ITV

Caroline Aherne's The Security Men brought 4.82m viewers (20.1%) to ITV on Friday, overnight data shows.



The one-off comedy drama, which aired for an hour from 9pm, featured Bobby Ball and Mrs Brown's Boys star Brendan O'Carroll as security guards in a shopping centre who miss a jewellery heist while watching TV.

Over on BBC One, Have I Got News for You and Not Going Out both dipped on last week's series openers, earning 4.47m (18.3%) and 3.95m (16.9) respectively from 9pm.

Earlier, MasterChef brought in 3.46m (14%) at 8pm, while The Graham Norton Show saw 3.44m (22.9%) at 10.45pm.

On BBC Two, Issac Newton: The Last Magician interested 1.45m (6.1%) at 9pm. Gardener's World was seen by 2.44m (9.9%) half an hour earlier.

The Martin Lewis Money Show pulled in 3.06m (13.4) at 8pm on ITV.

Meanwhile, Channel 4's 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown mustered 1.57m (6.6%) at 8pm and Alan Carr's latest Chatty Man was seen by 1.32m (7.2%) at 9pm.

The Mentalist grabbed 1.17m (4.8%) on Channel 5 at 9pm, while Ice Road Truckers earned 964k in the preceding hour.

The Big Bang Theory was the best performing show across the digital channels, earning 673k (3.5%) for E4 at 6.30pm.

The Big Bang Theory was the best performing show across the digital channels, earning 673k (3.5%) for E4 at 6.30pm.

And that was for a repeat which cost Channel 4 nothing! The same is true in the US where repeats of The Big Bang Theory often outperform completely new shows on rival channels.

Outbidding Sky for the series was one of the smartest moves Channel 4 has ever made but I can't help wondering how much better it would have done if it was shown on the mainstream Channel 4 channel instead of being hidden away on E4?