Celeb dance show defeats Ant & Dec

New celebrity dance show Let's Dance For Comic Relief was the most watched programme yesterday, helping to dent the audience for Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.

The programme, which saw Christopher Biggins perform as Danny from Grease and Les Dennis thrust his hips to 'You Should Be Dancing', averaged a sizable 6.81m (31.1%) for BBC One between 6.35pm and 8pm.

The audience grew steadily throughout, reaching a peak of 7.41m (32.5%) in the final five minutes.

Takeaway, which aired between 7.45pm and 9pm last night, was down to 6.39m (27.4%) - almost a million fewer than last week.

After Let's Dance, the National Lottery draw was seen by 5.91m (25.6%) on BBC One, then Casualty interested 5.84m (24.8%).

ITV1's new Chris Tarrant-fronted gameshow The Colour Of Money had earlier made an unspectacular start, with an average of 3.8m (17.6%) between 6.35pm and 7.45pm.

Timewatch: Queen Elizabeth's Lost Guns, about 400-year-old cannons hidden below the sea, brought in a reasonable 2.2m (9.4%) to BBC Two in the 8pm hour. The final episode of Iran and the West followed with 1.11m (5.2%).

NCIS pulled in 1.08m (4.6%) for Five in the 8pm hour, then a new episode of CSI: New York notched up 2.51m (11.7%). Law & Order had 1.51m (7.9%) from 10pm.

On Channel 4, a Grand Designs repeat managed 1.07m (4.6%) in the 8pm hour, then a screening of Vera Drake kept 1.47m (7.6%) until 11.25pm.

BBC One reclaimed the number one spot in primetime overall, with an average share of 24.5%. ITV1 was down from 29.4% last week to just 20.1%. BBC Two took third place with 7.2%, followed by Channel 4 with 6.1% (+1: 0.6%) and Five with 6.5%.

Ratings data supplied by Attentional