Solid start for 'Mutual Friends'

BBC One's new comedy drama Mutual Friends made a decent start in the ratings on Tuesday night.

The series, starring Marc Warren and Keeley Hawes, won its 9pm slot with 4.57m (19.6%) for the hour. The figure is up from the 3.93m (17.4%) who watched Pedigree Dogs Exposed in the same slot last week and was comfortably ahead of ITV1 documentary Fiddles, Cheats & Scams, which had 3.36m (14.4%). On Channel 4, The Secret Millionaire pulled in a strong 3.68m (15.8%), with a further 259,000 (1.6%) on Channel 4+1, but was down 600,000 on last week's record-setting episode.

Five had 2.57m (11%) for a new episode of CSI: Miami in the same slot, while BBC Two's Maestro dipped to 1.48m (6.4%).

Earlier, an hour-long Emmerdale managed 5.83m (29.3%) for ITV1 in the 7pm hour, but EastEnders was the marginal winner with 5.85m (28.1%) over 30 minutes from 7.30pm. The soap built on an already strong lead-in of 3.86m (20.4%) from The One Show.

At 8pm, Holby City drew 4.97m (22.2%) to stay ahead of The Bill's 4.03m (18%). BBC Two had a strong 2.65m (11.8%) with the first half of documentary Thames Shipwrecks: A Race Against Time, and on Channel 4, Don't Blame The Builder added 200,000 to reach 1.73m (7.7%). Five documentary repeat JFK - The Scandals: Revealed interested 1.31m (5.9%).

Big Brother delivered a confident 3.18m (17.5%) in the 10pm hour, with an additional 174,000 (2.1%) on timeshift. CSI: New York pulled in a respectable 1.86m (10%) for Five over the same period.

EastEnders was the top multichannel draw, with 833,000 (4.7%) for BBC Three at 10pm. Comedy How Not To Live Your Life followed with 311,000 (2.2%), then a double bill of Family Guy had audiences of 550,000 (5.4%) and 603,000 (7.6%) in the 11pm hour.

First-look Hollyoaks drew 601,000 (3.7%) to E4 at 7pm, with an extra 83,000 (0.4%) on E4+1, and Fiver's first-look Home & Away had 499,000 (3.2%) at 6.30pm.

ITV2's top audience was 373,000 (1.9%) for documentary Superhuman: World's Smallest People in the 8pm hour.

Film4's screening of 1989's Batman movie pulled in 309,000 (1.9%) between 9pm and 11.25pm. Meanwhile Sky Sports 2 raked in 541,000 (2.8%) with live coverage of the Carling Cup clash between Newcastle and Coventry from 7.30pm.