COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

BBC One miniseries Birdsong concluded with nearly 5.3m from 9pm, according to overnight data.



The First World War drama starring Eddie Redmayne hit 5.29m (21.4%) to help the channel to primetime victory, though it was slightly down from last week's figure of 6.03m (23.6%).

It was preceded by Countryfile, taking 6.77m (26%), and Call the Midwife, which continued very strongly with 8.76m (29.3%).

Dancing on Ice improved from last week for ITV1, attracting 7.55m (28%) from 6.45pm (+1: 205k/0.7%) and 5.88m (22.2%) for the skate-off (+1: 221k/1.3%).

Wild at Heart aired in between with 6.21m (22.1%) from 8.30pm (+1: 300k/1.3%) and That Sunday Show grabbed 2.41m (11.4%) from 10pm (+1: 193k/1.7%).

BBC Two's primetime lineup consisted of Sir Jimmy Saville at the BBC: How's About That Then? (952k/3.7%), Top Gear (4.33m/14.5%), Toughest Place to Be A... (2.53m/9.95%) and God Bless Ozzy Osbourne (1.35m/8.4%).

Channel 4's Hugh's Three Hungry Boys drew 837k (3.2%) from 7pm (+1: 142k/0.5%), with The Hotel taking 1.03m (3.5%) in the 8pm hour (+1: 227k/0.9%) before an airing of The Ghost was seen by 1.53m (7.4%) from 9pm (+1: 190k/1.5%).

World's Greatest Daredevils had 589k (2%) for Channel 5 from 8pm. 9pm's Bad Boys averaged 1.03m (4.9%).

Overall, BBC One's figure of 24.5% was enough to earn it a primetime victory over ITV1, which had 22.7% (+1: 0.9%). BBC Two took third place with 9.2% ahead of Channel 4 with 5% (+1: 0.7%) and Channel 5's 3.8%.

On the multichannels, Sky1's Got to Dance ended up with 940k (3.9%) from 6pm.