The old favourite, played by Sid Owen, turned up ahead of the funeral of his father Frank during last night's 8pm EastEnders.
The show won 43% of the audience, was up on the 9.2m (39.6%) slot average and was the day's most watched programme.
Coronation Street came close though, bringing 10.1m (45%) to ITV1 for its 7.30pm instalment and 10m (41%) for the second at 8.30pm.
BBC One was back on top at 9pm when 5.5m (24%) saw Crimewatch, with 4.5m (20%) watching The Fixer on ITV1.
BBC Two took third place with 1.6m (7%) tuning in for Alternative Therapies for an hour, while Channel 4 was close behind. Feature-length drama Poppy Shakespeare drew an audience of 1.3m (6%) from 9-10.45pm.
Five cooking competition Breaking Into Tesco reached 1.1m (5%) over the hour from 9pm.
> Click here for the Digital Spy recap of last night's EastEnders
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