TV ratings: BBC4 map show charts steady course

The ratings success of BBC4 series The Beauty of Maps provides an antidote to those who complain that there's nothing on multichannel except repeats, reality TV and US imports. Last night, Tuesday 20 April, BBC4's second episode of The Beauty of Maps, looking at the history of London over three centuries from three different maps, attracted 445,000 viewers and a 1.9% share in the half hour from 8.30pm. This delivered a 54% uplift to BBC4's average share in the slot over the past three months, the fifth best performance in multichannel yesterday by this comparison. Monday's first episode drew 453,000 viewers (also a 1.9% share) in the same slot. The Beauty of Maps was the 11th most-watched multichannel show yesterday, although the top 10 doesn't exactly prove the naysayers wrong. To the above list, add live football and new episodes of drama series broadcast immediately after the same show on a terrestrial parent channel, and the gang's pretty much all here: Multichannel top 10, 20/04/10 BBC3 - Shrek 2 (film rpt): 913,000/4% Sky Sports 2 - Live Uefa Champions League: Internazionale v Barcelona: 829,000/3.6% BBC3 - EastEnders (rpt): 822,000/4% BBC3 - Blood, Sweat Luxuries (new series): 628,000/2.6% E4 - Shameless (new episode): 614,000/6.8% Fiver - Home and Away (new episode): 587,000/3.1% ITV3 - Wycliffe (rpt): 517,000/2.1% ITV2 - The Vampire Diaries (new episode): 499,000/2.1% ITV3 - Born and Bred (rpt): 486,000/2.4% ITV3 - Agatha Christie's Poirot (rpt): 468,000/2% Five main terrestrial analogue networks BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel Five (available in all UK homes with TV, except Five, which reaches about 95%) BBC1 7.30pm: EastEnders - 8.842 million/39.7% 8pm: Holby City - 5.897 million/25.2% 9pm: Traffic Cops - 4.2 million/17.3% BBC2 8pm: Grow Your Own Drugs - 1.388 million/6.1% 8.30pm: The Delicious Miss Dahl - 1.417 million/5.9%, BBC HD 15,000/0.06% 9pm: Great Ormand Street - 2.294 million/9.5% ITV1 7pm: Emmerdale - 6.488 million/32% 8pm: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Celebrity - 3.293 million/14.1% 9pm: The Bill - 2.887 million/11.9% Channel 4 8pm: Supersize v Superskinny - 2.006 million/8.6%, C4 +1 289,000/1.2% 9pm: Heston's Titanic Feast - 2.354 million/9.7%, C4 +1 441,000/2.4% 10pm: Shameless - 2.058 million/11.4%, C4 +1 176,000/1.9% Channel Five 8pm: Cowboy Builders - 1.285 million/5.5% 9pm: CSI - 2.182 million/9% Freeview/digital terrestrial TV free-to-air networks Available in 23.4m UK homes – 91.4% of total – as of 31/12/09. Source: Ofcom digital progress report, Q4 2009 E4 9pm: 90210 - 319,000/1.3% More4 10pm: True Stories: The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan - 177,000/1% Cable and satellite pay-TV networks Available in 12.4m UK homes – 48.2% of total – as of 31/12/09. Source: Ofcom digital progress report, Q4 2009 Living 9pm: Cougar Town - 235,000/1% 9.30pm: Cougar Town - 241,000/1% Sky1 8pm: Stargate Universe - 421,000/1.8% 10pm: Ross Kemp: Battle for the Amazon (new series) - 126,000/0.7% All ratings are unofficial live overnight figures, excluding other viewing – including timeshifted (recorded), on demand, HD, +1 or other – unless otherwise stated