'Mrs Brown's Boys' holds strong despite BBC comedy collapse

Mrs Brown's Boys was the only bright spark in BBC One's comedy lineup last night.



The Brendan O'Carroll sitcom averaged 4.67m (18.6%) at 9.30pm, despite a dreadful lead-in from David Jason's The Royal Bodyguard, which slumped to 2.94m (11.7%).

Now in its third week, Royal Bodyguard has lost over 4 million fans, having premiered with 7.1m on Boxing Day.

Jasper Carrott's return to stand-up, in The One Jasper Carrott, was seen by 3.4m (13.4%) at 8.30pm.

Elsewhere, series four of Lynda La Plante's Above Suspicion opened with 6.31m (25.1%) on ITV1 at 9pm, adding 256k (1.4%) on +1, prior to which 8pm documentary Cornwall with Caroline Quentin interested 3.83m (15.1%) and 147k (0.6%) on timeshift.

BBC Two's University Challenge educated 2.99m (11.7%) at 8pm, then the audience dropped to 1.97m (7.8%) for An Island Parish. A Horizon Special at 9pm rallied 1.12m (6.4%), after which Rhod Gilbert's Work Experience had just 842k (4.2%).

Celebrity Big Brother documentary on 2011 winner Paddy Doherty and contestant Sally Bercow When Paddy Met Sally delivered 1.1m (6.2%) in the 10pm hour, while the nightly highlights programme attracted 2.15m (8.5%) at 9pm, and spinoff show Bit on the Side with Emma Willis took 488k (5.2%) at 11pm. The Gadget Show's first episode of 2012 pulled in 596k (2.3%) at 8pm.

For Channel 4, a Dispatches special drew 1.09m (4.3%) at 8pm (+1: 179k/0.7%), 1.77m (9%) tuned in to Coppers at 9pm (+1: 380k/2.1%), and Shameless kicked off a new series with 1.88m (11.5%) from 10pm (+1: 307k/3.6%).

Overall, ITV1 outshone BBC One in primetime, with 25.7% (+1: 0.6%) against 19.6%. Channel 4 and BBC Two tied in third place with 6% (C4 +1: 1%), ahead of Channel 5's 4.8%.

All tonight's TV here: TV Guide