New Tricks does the business again for BBC One with 8m

by Darren Davidson, Brand Republic 22-Jul-08, 11:00

LONDON - The third episode of BBC One's detective drama 'New Tricks' has continued its strong start, as 8m viewers tuned in last night, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The third episode of the latest series, which stars Denis Waterman and Amanda Redman, captured a 34.1% share of the audience between 9pm-10pm. Last week's episode was watched by 8.1m viewers.

'Dragon's Den', the show in which budding entrepreneurs try to convince a panel of business leaders to invest in their ideas, returned with 3.4m viewers and a 14.6% share of the audience in the same slot on BBC Two.

Last night's episode included a Den first, as band Hamfatter offered a slice of their future earnings to the dragons in their pursuit an alternative route to a traditional record deal.

Impressively, after a presentation including a one minute performance, four of the dragons ended up making offers. In the end, the band opted to take up mobile phone tycoon Peter Jones who paid the £75,000 for 30% of their future earnings.

'Police, Camera, Action' brought ITV1 3.4m viewers and a 14.5% share between 9pm-10pm.

Despite strong competition, a Channel 4 documentary called 'Can't Read, Can't Write', which will span three episodes, launched with 1.5m viewers and a 6.3% share between 9pm-10pm.

Last night's programme, in which presenter Phil Beadle tackled the government's policy on literacy, saw its ratings increase to 1.7m viewers and a 7.3% share, including figures from Channel 4+1.

The latest instalment of Channel 4's 'Big Brother' scored 2.8m viewers and a 15.9% share between 10pm-11pm. Including Channel 4+1, the ratings rose to 3.1m viewers and a 17.4% share.

Comments

Keith Geddes - 23/07/2008

New tricks has been a consistently entertainming, well made, amusing semi cop series.. Good ingredients.. I nearly got put off by the tv guide saying he might sing again. That turned out to be a red herring. Little Britain had it dead right picking up Dennis on that. Minder? New Tricks.. whatever hes in next will it be in his contract to do the theme tune? The programme deserves its success. Many dont.