'Casualty' reclaims Saturday stronghold

BBC One's Casualty last night reclaimed its Saturday night stronghold, according to the latest overnight data.

The medical drama, celebrating its 25th year on air this September, pulled in 5.47m (25.4%) from 9pm for an episode titled 'Pascal's Wager'.

Head-to-head with ITV's flagship summer entertainment show, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, hosted by Jonathan Ross, took 2.96m (13.9%). However, the magician double-act appealed to 241k on ITV1 +1.

Despite the low figure, Penn and Teller was ITV's most popular primetime offering. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Behind The Magic interested 2.87m (14.2%) at 7.15pm (+1: 464k), Odd One In entertained 2.32m (11.1%) at 8.15pm (+1: 233k), and The Marriage Ref slumped even further to 1.51m (8.6%) at the later time of 10pm.

Meanwhile, John Barrowman vehicle Tonight's The Night continued to dazzle 4.53m (22.4%) at 7.10pm, The National Lottery: In It To Win It quizzed 5.35m (25.7%) at 8.10pm, and the fifth episode of Lee Mack's All Star Cast amused 3.4m (17.8%) at 9.50pm.

Over on BBC Two, classic Dad's Army drew 2.04m (10%) at 7.30pm, after which 1.17m (5.6%) watched The Impressionists: Painting and Revolution in the 8pm hour. Have I Got A Bit More News For You followed at 9pm with 1.65m (7.7%), and Secrets of the Pop Song mustered 854k (4.5%).

Channel 4's screening of Marley & Me managed 1.41m (7%) between 6.55pm and 9pm (+1: 215k), then 1.1m (5.2%) tuned in for Camelot (+1: 121k).

Elsewhere, NCIS (7.05pm), Law and Order (8pm), CSI (9pm) and Law & Order: SVU (9.50pm) secured respective audiences of 787k (3.9%), 848k (4.1%), 969k (4.5%) and 1.32m (7.1%).

Overall, BBC One stormed primetime with 22.5%, ahead of ITV1's 12.9% (+1: 2.2%), BBC Two's 7%, Channel 4's 6% (+1: 0.8%), and Channel 5's 4.8%.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional