WENDY RICHARD - RICHARD TRIBUTE SHOW LEADS BBC VIEWING FIGURES

RICHARD TRIBUTE SHOW LEADS BBC VIEWING FIGURES

The BBC's tribute programme to actress Wendy Richard, who died earlier this week, pulled in more than five million viewers according to statistics.

The former EastEnders star, who passed away aged 65 on Thursday, was the subject of a hastily-arranged show screened between 20:00 and 20:30 GMT that evening.

The programme replaced the listed screening of Rogue Traders and pulled in a 22 per cent audience share of 5.31 million - ahead of the average viewing figures for the Master Chef on BBC2 between 20:00 and 21:00 GMT (5.16 million, 20.9 per cent).

Billy Connolly: Journey To The Edge Of The World was the top performing show on ITV with 4.33m viewers at 21:00 GMT, while Channel 4's Cutting Edge film Love, Life, Death In A Day pulled in 1.75m (7.4 per cent) at 21:00.

And Five managed an average of 1.09m (5.3 per cent) with mystery thriller Freedomland between 21:00 and 23:15.