Hislop trains show breaks BBC Four record

A one-off rail-themed programme fronted by Ian Hislop brought in BBC Four's second best ever ratings on Thursday night.

Ian Hislop Goes Off The Rails, a reflection of the damaging effect of the 1960s Beecham report on British railways, averaged a mighty 1.29m (6.7%) for the channel in the 9pm hour. The figure is BBC Four's best-rated factual audience ever and the second best audience overall. Only drama The Curse Of Steptoe has rated higher, with 1.4m (7%) in March this year.

Other programmes in the channel's rail-themed evening also pulled in impressive audiences. Great Railway Journeys had 548,000 (3.6%) in the 10pm hour and at 8.30pm, Railway Walks picked up 680,000 (3.6%). Overall, BBC Four had a primetime share of 3.7%, ahead of ITV4's 2.6%, BBC Three's 2.2%, ITV2's 2.2% and E4's 1.9%.

BBC Three's top audience was 998,000 (6.1%) for its 10pm EastEnders repeat and ITV2 had a strong 845,000 (4.4%) for Katie & Peter: The Next Chapter at 9pm. Sky1's Bones had 579,000 (3%) in the 9pm hour, while on ITV4, coverage of the Uefa Cup game between Man City and Omonia Nicosia brought in 537,000 (2.9%) between 7pm and 10pm.

The most-watched programme of the day overall was Emmerdale, which once again aired a one-hour episode at 7pm. It pulled in 5.72m (28.8%) across the hour, while EastEnders had 5.48m (26.6%) over 30 minutes from 7.30pm.

The Bill won the 8pm hour for ITV1, with 4.83m (22.5%). BBC One had 3.16m (15.1%) for The Planners Are Coming, then the audience dropped to 2.87m (13.1%) for Accidental Heroes at 8.30pm. The Restaurant drew 2.41m (11.3%) to BBC Two in the 8pm hour, and on Channel 4, The Great Italian Escape and Chateau Monty ended their runs with 1.24m (5.9%) and 1.16m (5.3%) respectively.

Silent Witness was the confident winner in the 9pm hour, pulling in 5.44m (24.6%) for BBC One. ITV1 had a ratings disaster on its hands with new business-based reality series Natural Born Sellers, which had just 1.71m (7.8%) for the hour. It drew level with Channel 4's documentary Dana: The 8 Year Old Anorexic, but fell short of BBC Two's Never Mind The Buzzcocks, which returned with 2.22m (9.9%). New comedy Beautiful People launched to 1.52m (7%) at 9.30pm, then The Graham Norton Show managed 1.37m (7.2%).

Five put in a respectable performance through primetime with coverage of two Uefa Cup games. The first, between Standard Liege and Everton, drew 1.43m (7%) from 6.30pm. At 9.30pm, coverage of Portsmouth vs Vitoria Guimaraes had 1.35m (10.1%) until 12.05am.

Overall during primetime, BBC One averaged 21.7% for first place, while ITV1 had 17.1%. BBC Two was third with 8.2%, followed by Five with 7.5% and Channel 4 with 6%.

Ratings data supplied by Attentional