'Ashes To Ashes' finale draws 6.5 million

Last night's Ashes To Ashes finale pulled in a decent audience for BBC One, according to early viewing figures.

The show easily won the 9pm hour, pulling in 6.45m (29.2%), but failed to top the series opener, which drew a respectable 7.01m in April. An average of 5.75m tuned in over its eight-week run, down slightly from last year's first series average of 5.99m.

Its nearest rival, ITV1's My Child Won't Sleep, managed 2.87m (13%), while 1.64m (7.4%) watched the final instalment of BBC Two's Who's Watching You.

A new Channel 4 series, The World's Greatest Musical Prodigies, which profiled one of Britain's most prolific young composers, took 980k (4.4%), and the last of Five's Extraordinary People: Real Wolf Kids, a study of two children suffering from 'werewolf syndrome', put in 1.09m (4.9%).

Earlier, at 8pm, Channel 4's Dispatches: Crash Gordon, a focus on the Prime Minister's handling of the credit crunch, interested 740k (3.5%), while Springwatch attracted 3.24m (14.5%) to BBC Two. A new series of Fifth Gear had 751k (3.4%) for Five.

Over on BBC One, the half-hour Panorama, which focused on President Obama, grabbed 2.02m (8.9%) at 8.30pm, and 2.84m (12.7%) watched ITV1's Cornershop Crunch Time: Tonight between 8pm and 8.30pm.

Overall, BBC One came top during primetime with an average share of 23%, just ahead of ITV1's 22%. BBC Two was third with 9.3%, followed by Channel 4 with 5.4% (+1: 0.5%) and Five's 3.3%.

Elsewhere, Sky1's new series, Ross Kemp In Search Of Pirates, took 628k (3.1%) at 9pm, beating I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! USA, which took 517k (2.9%) for ITV2, and E4's 90210, which put in 255k (1.3%).

Ratings data supplied by Attentional