Peggy’s emotional final night in Albert Square secures 6.9m

Tuesday night brought a double dollop of closure for BBC One as there was an devastating curtain call for Walford’s reigning matriarch, who bowed out for good in a typically unwavering fashion, while the schedule’s most prominent Bake Off by-product yet came to a close.

After weeks of teasing (and years of feverish fan hopes) EastEnders (7:30pm) finally saw the Mitchell brothers reunited with their dear old mother Peggy (Dame Barbara Windsor) who, unbeknownst to her troubled boys, had already taken the decision to quietly script her own exit.

Thankfully, she wasn’t alone for her sensitive final scenes, with another soap legend coming back from the dead via the magic of a near-death hallucination.

Peggy’s final scenes saw the diminutive battle-axe joined by an ever-caustic Pat Butcher (Pam St. Clement), who donned a pair of typically gaudy auricle ornaments for the occasion.

Tuesday’s biggest live audience tuned in to see the soap legend bravely decide to take a fatal overdose of her own medication, resulting in an above average audience of 6.9 million viewers and a whopping 37% share, while Peggy’s solemn, but celebratory, final episode topping the TV Twitter Chart.

Saying that, though, the second most tweeted about show was something called Geordie Shore: Big Birthday Battle, which secured just 338,000 viewers at 10pm on MTV.

Tuesday’s other soap, rural murder and deception show Emmerdale, scored the second biggest audience for ITV at 7pm. 5.1 million viewers watched as David Metcalfe (Matthew Wolfenden) fought through his own cancer battle, resulting in a 30% share.

A bit later, ITV’s Marcella once again netted the 9pm slot for the commercial broadcaster as the deranged eight part tale of an amnesic-lady-detective-wot-Hulks-out-and-possible-murders-people crashed past the finish line.

The roller coaster thriller, as mental as it is additive, opened up with 5.8 million viewers and despite an ongoing decline continued to secure the 9pm window for ITV.

Last night’s further decent into Anna Friel’s nutty blackout-fuelled paranoia netted 3.9 million viewers and a 19% share.

Elsewhere, there was some more afterbirth fun to be had in the second series of In the Club at 9pm on BBC One. The latest adventures in post-natal struggles brought in 2.9 million viewers and a 14% share.

On BBC Two, Old School with the Hairy Bikers (9pm) bagged 1.1 million viewers (a 5% share) while Channel 4 reverted back to welfare fodder after a break with How to Get a Council House (9pm) which bagged 1.1 million viewers and a 5% share.

Surprisingly, this didn’t clash with Channel 5’s own-brand benefits programming as they decided to offer up televisual fluff of another kind  with Penguin A&E with Lorrain Kelly (9pm). 398,000 viewers tuned in to see the hospital of cute, resulting in a 2% share.

At 8pm, The Yorkshire Vet secured 1.1 million viewers for Channel 5 while Holby City brought in 4 million to BBC One,Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners bagged 885,000 viewers for Channel 4 and ITV’s Fierce was watched by an audience of 1.7 million.

On BBC Two, Bake Off: Crème de la Crème (8pm) came to a spectacular end after eight episodes as the three remaining teams of highly focused professionals battle it out with the ridiculously lavish creations and attention to detail.

Featuring the anti-Paul and Mary as judges, pompous French pastry chef Benoit Blin and tiny terror Cherish Finden (and another, nice, one), the show debuted to 3.5 million viewers but didn’t capture the public imagination in the way that was hoped.

Last night’s finale saw 2.8 million viewers tune in to see host Tom Kerridge (the ‘light relief’) provide many, many moments of awkward tension while trying to interview the stress-fuelled and angry contestants, which was almost enough to you miss Mel and Sue.

The surprisingly cursed-filled hour of telly netted a 14% share, with the finale down -20% on the first episode.

Speaking of rousing finales, this will be my last Overnights here at Mediatel. Plans are afoot to provide users with a new look daily report but in the meantime the overnights files will be available here each morning for BARB subscribers.

Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.

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