'Torchwood' retains strong audience

Last night's episode of Torchwood held a strong audience for BBC One, according to the latest viewing figures.

The third instalment of the five part series pulled in an impressive 5.87m (27.1%), making it the most-watched show during the 9pm hour. The audience figures are up slightly from yesterday's performance and remained fairly even with Monday's premiere.

Its nearest rival, ITV1's Trial & Retribution repeat, put in 3.37m (15.6%), while new BBC Two comedy Taking The Flak, about a group of BBC journalists covering an African war, was seen by 1.21m (5.6%).

Channel 4's Big Brother highlights show managed 2.03m (9.3%), the highest midweek audience figure since the Wednesday, June 10 show, which logged 2.14m (12.3%) during the 10pm hour.

Five's Jodie Foster film, Panic Room, averaged 960k (5%) between 9.15pm and 11pm.

The Bill led the 8pm hour, drawing 5.01m (24.4%) for ITV1. BBC One's Celebrity Masterchef was close behind with 4.62m (22.5%), while a repeat of Embarrassing Teenage Bodies logged 1.79m (8.7%) for Channel 4.

Over on BBC Two, a repeat of Sunday's Top Gear grabbed 1.78m (8.7%), and 1.24m (6%) watched Five's Build A New Life In The Country.

The 10pm screening of the latest episode of Channel 4's Ugly Betty was seen by 1.22m (6.9%).

Overall, ITV1 came top during primetime with an average share of 22.7% to BBC One's 22.1%. Channel 4 was third with 7.1% (+1: 1.1%), followed by BBC Two with 5.3% and Five's 5.2%.

Elsewhere, BBC Four's new documentary series, The Grandparent Diaries opened to 366k (1.8%) at 9pm. The first episode of Jo Brand's new comedy drama Getting On followed, putting in 728k (4.2%) and making it the most-watched programme on the multichannel stations.

The latest episode of Gossip Girl interested 136k (0.7%) for ITV2. A further 45k (0.2%) watched the show on timeshift.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional