'Neighbours' achieves its best UK ratings since April

Published Jul 11 2012, 11:01 BST  |  By Paul Millar

Neighbours has started the week brightly by drawing its best UK audiences in three months.

The Australian soap grabbed a total audience of 1.7m yesterday (Tuesday, July 10), with 758k (10.3%) at 1.45pm and 955k (6.6%) later at 5.30pm.

Monday and Tuesday's trips to Ramsay Street, which centred around Kyle kissing Kate and his subsequent guilt, has given the soap its highest British figures since April 18.

Home and Away, however, fell back to 654k (3.8%) at 6pm but an impressive 507k (2.4%) stuck around for 5*'s first look half an hour later.

Elsewhere, Hollyoaks retained a solid 1.05m (5.6%) as Texas paid serial killer Silas another visit at 6.30pm, then E4's first look logged an impressive 643k (3.2%) at 7pm (+1: 120k/0.6%).

EastEnders predictably topped the soap ratings, pulling in a decent 7.19m (34.8%) at 7.30pm and 763k (3.6%) for BBC Three's 10pm repeat as Jay found the murder weapon that killed Heather.

Emmerdale, meanwhile, took a respectable 6.29m (31.8%) at 7pm (+1: 136k/0.6%) for its standalone edition, this week not clashing with EastEnders.

The latest edition of Holby City, 'Only You', drew 4.79m (21.8%) in its usual 8pm-9pm slot.

Finally, Doctors found its feet again as it grew to 1.39m (18.8%) for its latest instalment entitled 'Start Up'. BBC One's daytime serial was off air for a fortnight and returned to the schedules on Monday.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional