Alan Titchmarsh's flowers seen by 3.1m

Last night's first visit to the Chelsea Flower Show performed well for BBC Two, according to early viewing figures.

The 8pm show, presented by Alan Titchmarsh and Joe Swift, was seen by an impressive 3.1m (13.5%). It beat Channel 4's Dispatches and Five's The Gadget Show, which took 1.06m (4.6%) and 1.05m (4.6%) respectively.

BBC One's Panorama attracted 2.27m (9.6%) between 8.30pm and 9pm, while ITV1's half-hour The Property Waiting Game: Tonight took 2.91m (13%) at 8pm.

Ashes To Ashes led the 9pm hour, drawing a solid 5.59m (24.5%) for BBC One. Its nearest competitor, ITV1's Sex, Lies And Videotapes, which saw psychologists examine tapes of Karen Matthews to determine if it was possible to tell she was lying about her daughter's disappearance, managed 4.5m (19.7%).

Channel 4's 1066: The Battle For Middle Earth interested 1.46m (6.9%) between 9pm and 10.45pm, while the first of BBC Two's two-parter, The Trouble With Working Women, grabbed 1.28m (5.6%) during the 9pm hour.

Romantic drama Message In A Bottle, starring Kevin Costner and Robin Wright, put in 976k (5.5%) for Five.

Overall, ITV1 came top during primetime with an average share of 24.4% to BBC One's 22.6%. BBC Two was third with 8.6%, followed by Channel 4 with 5.5% (+1: 0.5%) and Five's 4.3%.

Elsewhere, Sky1's screening of the new episode of 24 took 498k (2.4%) at 9pm, beating 90210, which averaged 311k (1.5%) for E4.

Ratings data supplied by Attentional