ITV wraps up another successful series of Grantchester

Wednesday night brought a close to the second series of ITV’s attractive crime-solving vicar show Grantchester (9pm), with the latest instalment mostly continuing the success of the initial run.

The show, about a gruff Geordie cop, Geordie Keating (real-life Geordie Robson Green), and his unlikely sleuthing union with James Norton’s haunted vicar Sidney Chambers, opened up to 5.2 million viewers back in October 2014 and locked in a solid audience with its mixture of middle-England nostalgia and sometimes topless stars.

Set back in the days when everything looked beautiful, quaint and green – and when every conversation seemed to take place near the river Cam – the 50s-set drama saw Sidney and Geordie continually join forces to solve various crimes, with the first series finale pulling in 4.6 million viewers for ITV.

[advert position=”left”]Viewers had to wait a whole 16 months for another chance to escape to the pretty – but highly dangerous – Cambrideshire hamlet, which resulted in a slightly lower début audience of 5 million viewers for the second series.

Last night saw Sidney’s personal and professional life once again combust in a haze of whiskey-related madness, as his vicar mate ran off with a young girl, culminating in an emotional finale.

Despite the huge gap between series, yesterday’s wrap up performed almost as well as the first series closer, with 4.5 million viewers and a 22% share tuning in to see how the sordid tale ended, bagging the biggest 9pm audience for ITV.

Over on BBC One, the third series of Countryfile Goes Large Secret Britain continued at 9pm as three highly enthused presenters got all excited about visiting Kent.

An audience of 2.7 million viewers watched as Chris Hollis ‘discovered the secrets of the North Kent marshes’ (spoiler – there were none) while Ellie Harrison climbed up a wind turbine for the hell of it, netting a 13% share for BBC One.

On Channel 5, real life horror show Nightmare Tennants, Slum Landlords brought in 1 million viewers and a 5% share at 9pm, while BBC Two’s eye-opening doc Employable Me (9pm) secured 1.3 million viewers and a 6% share.

At the same time on Channel 4 was impressive one-off The People Next Door (9pm), a Blair Witch-type drama about the real horrors of urban living.

Telling the tale of a young couple who move into a new home, only to record their every move once they are convinced very bad things are happening in their adjoining neighbour’s house.

The disturbingly well-played out descent into paranoia and self-surveillance was the second most-tweeted about show of the day, with 1.4 million viewers and a 7% share tuning in.

A littler earlier the latest instalment of MasterChef (8pm) won over 4.8 million viewers and a 23% share on BBC One, while Horizon: Oceans of the Solar System (8pm) was watched by 1.1 million and a 6% share on BBC Two.

ITV’s Big Star’s Little Star (8pm) saw more Z-list celeb sprogs being shown off for entertainment, resulting in 3 million viewers and a 15% share.

The Supervet bagged 1.9 million viewers and a 9% share, while over on Channel 4 the unprofessional human-menders of GPs: Behind Closed Doors was watched by 889,000 viewers and a 4% share.

ITV’s soaps took the day’s top spots with Emmerdale bringing in 5.5 million viewers and a 30% share at 7pm, while the haze of funny smelling smoke on Coronation Street (7:30pm) netted 6.4 million viewers and a 32% 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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