Sky One boosts audience with The Take gangster drama

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 18-Jun-09, 11:20

LONDON - Sky One series 'Martina Cole's The Take', a heavily promoted original drama commission, debuted with around 650,000 viewers last night, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The first episode of the gangster drama aired at 9pm-10pm. It attracted 648,000 viewers and a 3% share, making Sky One the most watched digital channel at the time. It was following by the second episode, which saw figures climb to 674,000 and a 4% share.

The channel's average audience in the slot so far this year is 152,000 viewers.

Out of the terrestrial channels ITV1 took the ratings top spot with 'Spain: Paradise Lost', a documentary examining the effects of Spain's property crash on the 1m Britons living in the country.

Its 4.3m audience (20% share) was equivalent to the ratings earned on Tuesday night by the first episode of BBC One's 'Occupation', a drama about the Iraq war. 'Occupation' continued last night at 9pm-10pm with 3.2m and a 15% share.

Channel 4's 'Embarrassing Bodies' brought in 3.1m viewers and a 15% share including Channel 4+1 figures.

Five aired spaghetti Western 'A Fistful of Dollars' at 9pm-11.05pm, managing 1.6m viewers and an 8% share.

BBC Two focused on health with a documentary called 'The Price of Life'. It looked at how the health service has to make decisions about what drugs to make available to patients and was seen by 800,000 viewers, which was a 4% share of viewing.