'Emmerdale's rooftop drama draws 6.75m

Emmerdale's much-anticipated real-time rooftop episode was seen by an average of 6.8m last night, early figures show.

The rural soap's first episode of the night at 7pm, during which Lexi took to the roof with baby Angelica, logged 5.77m (35.1%).

Its second real-time outing at 8pm - which featured Sally Oliver's departure from the soap - brought in the show's highest audience since May 18, interesting 6.75m (36.4%).

The episode also achieved the soap's highest Thursday ratings since ITV's new lineup was launched on July 23.

Coronation Street was the most-watched soap of the day, taking 7.58m (36.4%) at 8.30pm for its instalment which saw Michelle rumble Tony and Maria's relationship. ITV2's 10.30pm repeat added a further 233k (1.6%).

BBC One's edition of EastEnders, in which Ronnie rekindled her romance with Joel, put in 6.84m (38.4%) at 7.30pm. BBC Three's 10pm repeat was the most-watched multichannel programme of the day, adding 704k (3.9%).

Doctors' penultimate episode of the week, titled 'Magic', managed 1.37m (21.9%) at its usual time of 1.45pm.

Five's Neighbours offering, during which Susan offered to be Libby's surrogate, had 1.33m (12.2%) at 5.30pm, while Fiver's repeat at 7pm added 211k (1.4%).

Meanwhile, Hollyoaks managed 1.2m (7.9%) at 6.30pm, before E4's first look took 363k (2.4%).

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional