2.7m attracted to 'Devil's Whore'

New drama The Devil's Whore had an encouraging start in the ratings last night (Wednesday).

The four-part story, set at the time of the English Civil War and starring John Simm, averaged 2.71m (12%) for Channel 4 between 9pm and 10.20pm. An additional 95k (0.7%) watched on Channel 4+1.

It was preceded by the Home Show, which drew a steady 1.92m (8.1%) for the 8pm hour. Overall, Channel 4's primetime share was up to 8.5%, from 6.3% last week.

ITV1 was without I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! but still managed to pull in a huge audience with coverage of a friendly between England and Germany. The game, which England won 2-1, averaged a hefty 7.22m (31.2%) between 7.30pm and 10.10pm. Coverage peaked with 8.73m (36.6%) at 8.30pm.

ITV1's primetime share was up to 28.3%, from 25% last week.

BBC One had a quiet night in comparison. Its top audience was 5.14m (24%) for The One Show at 7pm, then an hour later, the latest episode of continuing costume drama Little Dorrit managed 3.8m (16%).

New gardening makeover show Wild About Your Garden, hosted by Nick Knowles, launched on the channel at 8.30pm with 3.1m (13%), then Crimewatch put in 3.91m (16.6%) for the 9pm hour. The channel's average share was 18.7%, on par with last week's 18.6%.

BBC Two's Oceans took a dip from last week's 2.8m (11.9%) debut, averaging 2.18m (9.2%) in the 8pm hour. Heroes followed with 1.96m (8.2%), then Heroes Unmasked brought in 1.29m (5.8%). The channel's share dropped from 9% to 7.8%.

On Five, the final episode of Axe Men was seen by 987k (4.2%) at 8pm, then a new episode of Dangerous Adventures For Boys delivered 749k (3.2%). Five's primetime share was roughly level at 3.8% on last week's 3.7%.

Among the soaps, Emmerdale led the pack in the absence of Corrie with 6.89m (32.2%) at 7pm. Hollyoaks pulled in 1.63m (7.9%) for Channel 4 at 6.30pm (+1: 91k, 0.5%), then E4's first-look picked up 713k (3.8%) at 7pm (+1: 118k, 0.6%).

On Five, Neighbours logged 1.6m (10%) then Home & Away had 906k (4.8%).

Heroes was the most-watched multichannel show of the day, pulling in 860k (5.3%) to BBC Three at 10pm.

ITV3's repeat of Poirot brought in a sizable 573k (2.7%), while ITV2 peaked with 572k (3.7%) in the 10pm hour (+1: 67k, 0.8%).

Ratings data supplied by Attentional