'Enders drops to 14-month audience low

EastEnders dropped to a 14-month audience low on BBC One in a clash with Emmerdale on Tuesday.

The episode saw Lauren Branning (Madeline Duggan) confront mother Tanya (Jo Joyner) about her relationship with her brother-in-law Jack (Scott Maslen).

Just 5m (26.8%) tuned in from 7.30pm - far short of the soap's 8.3m (37.5%) average for the year to date, and the smallest audience since 4m (19.6%) on May 17 last year. An additional 1m (5.9%) watched the BBC Three repeat of the episode at 10pm, however.

ITV1 easily dominated the slot, with Emmerdale drawing 5.8m (32.5%) between 7pm and 8pm, while the Channel 4 News was watched by 852,000 (4.8%).

Charles Wheeler: A Tribute, BBC Two's special programme in memory of the broadcast journalist who died earlier this month, was watched by 841,000 (4.7%). Five's Megastructures interested 296,000 (1.6%) between 7.15pm and 8pm.

Later on, BBC One drama Bonekickers dropped another 800,000 to reach 4.6m (21.4%) in the 9pm hour, down from 5.2m (24.3%) last week and 6.8m (30.5%) for its opening episode.

ITV1 came second in the slot, with 3.9m (18.2%) watching a Doc Martin repeat, while the penultimate episode of Gordon Ramsay's F Word drew 3m (17.5%) to Channel 4.

> Catch-up with last night's EastEnders