ITV1's 'Eternal Law' loses 9pm battle to 'Crimewatch'

ITV1 fantasy drama Eternal Law lost out to Crimewatch in last night's 9pm ratings battle.

Created by the makers of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, the series' fourth episode drew 3.1m (13%) and 129k (0.7%) on +1, a mild improvement on last week's low.

Crimewatch led the hour with 4.2m (17.7%) for BBC One, while the penultimate edition of Celebrity Big Brother grabbed a decent 2.4m (10.1%), and Restoration Man climbed to 2.23m (9.4%) for Channel 4 (+1: 280k/1.6%).

Against ITV's hour of soaps from 8pm, the final Earthflight thrilled 4.07m (16.5%) on BBC One, while Location, Location, Location took 2.05m (8.3%) for Channel 4 (+1: 397k/1.7%) and Channel 5's World's Greatest Daredevils interested 772k (3.1%).

Documentaries Saxon Hoard: A Golden Discovery scored 1.84m/7.5% and Putin, Russia and the West had 1.02m/4.3% on BBC Two.

Overall, BBC One edged primetime with 21.2% versus ITV1's 20.7% (+1: 0.5%). Channel 4 rose to third place with 7.2% (+1: 1.1%), leaving BBC Two (6%) and Channel 5 (5.5%) in fourth and fifth respectively.

On the multichannel networks, Mad Dogs mustered 725k (3.1%) for Sky1, down 132k week-on-week.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional