COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

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%.