BBC’s Death in Paradise trashes ITV’s Bring Back Borstal

BBC One secured the 9pm slot last night with the latest instalment of laid-back murder drama Death in Paradise (9pm), as the long-tortured residents of Sainte Marie once again put aside the tanning lotion and beach balls in order to investigate the latest bothersome manslaughter to befall the stunning Caribbean island.

The second episode of the fourth series saw Kris Marshall’s DI Goodman continue to throw longing, pining looks across a decomposing body (the heat surely can’t help) to his partner DS Bordey (Sara Martins) while she remained contractually obliged by the writers to be completely oblivious.

Even after an entire third series of hopeless flirting, fans of the show seem to remain intrigued by the Goodman/Bordey dynamic, with the fourth series opening up last week to an audience of 6.9 million viewers.

Thursday night’s slice of sunny, light-hearted slaughter focused on the murder of a surf school owner, almost guaranteeing an entire hour of bikini-clad suspects. In total, 6.7 million viewers watched the second episode, meaning there was barely a fall in audience, week on week.

A 26% also share meant that the tales of the sun-kissed Caribbean coppers easily won over the prime time spot from BBC One’s rivals.

At the same time on BBC Two Jacques Peretti continued on his quest to get the disgustingly wealthy to fess up to the dangerously divided society they’ve created in the second part of seductive-yet-anger-extracting investigation The Super-Rich and Us (9pm).

Increasing on last week’s 1.4 million viewers, an inflated audience of 1.6m were able to stomach the blatant financial manipulation and greed that keeps the super-rich super rich while keeping the toiling class down. The fascinating inequalities helped bring in a 7% share for BBC Two.

Over on Channel 4, little Game of Thrones‘ little Arya Stark had to deal with all kinds of modern dangers in the one off film Cyberbully at 9pm.

The disturbing one-woman cautionary tale of trolling and being manipulated by the dark web played like an E4 version of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror and was watched by over 1 million viewers and a 5% share.

At the same time, selfless broadcaster ITV was busy attempting to correct society’s wrongs and mend the cracks of broken Britain in the not-at-all sensationalist Bring Back Borstal (9pm).

After four impossible ruffians were sent packing last week, the nine remaining ne’er-do-well street urchins were put to work in the institution, learning valuable skills such as cooking, laundry and washing, but not before the whole experiment went a bit off the rails.

Down from last week’s début audience of 2.2 million viewers, last night saw 1.8 million viewers tune in to a breakthrough for some of the mouthy offenders, netting an 8% share.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the nether-regions of the soul Celebrity Big Brother (9pm) continued apace on Channel 5, with the ongoing horror show bringing in 2.3 million viewers, a 10% share and once again topping the Twitter TV charts.

Afterwards, a new episode of Botched Up Bodies (Channel 5, 10pm) provided plenty of nightmare fuel for 927,000 viewers and a 6% share, while Channel 4 treated their audience to a repeat of My Granny the Escort (Channel 4, 10:20pm).

Earlier in the day a double helping of Emmerdale bagged Thursday’s fourth and fifth places as Belle’s Dingle’s schizophrenia came to light in an explosive fashion. The episode at 7pm was watched by 6.3 million viewers, while 6 million viewers tuned in at 8pm, netting a 31% and 27% share, respectively.

Lumped in between the Yorkshire crime soap was a special tea time helping of Jeremy Kyle. The Kyle Files (ITV, 7:30pm) saw the fearless reporter uncovering the world of knife crime, resulting in 2.6 million viewers and a 12% share.

But it was BBC One’s resurgent soap EastEnders that stole the top spot at 7:30pm. An audience of 7.5 million viewers tuned in to see demented bad boy Dean attempt to worm his way into the Vic in the Carter’s absence, upsetting a confused Nancy in the process. The usual ray of Walford happiness secured a 35% share.

Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.

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