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Monday 15th October 2007
Channel 4 aired a one-off medical drama in the 9pm slot last night, but The Relief of Belsen is a million miles away from the usual hospital ward politics and emergency tracheotomies. This two-hour production from Hardy & Sons (the young indie whose previous credits include Trafalgar Battle Surgeon and the BAFTA-nominated A Harlot’s Progress) tells the story of the humanitarian catastrophe that was revealed when Allied troops captured the Belsen concentration camp in 1945. They found 40,000 inmates living in appalling conditions and deprived of medical care. The Relief of Belsen depicts the small band of doctors and nurses who struggled against the odds to save lives and build the largest hospital in Europe. It features a very respectable cast list, including Iain Glen, Juliet Aubrey and Nigel Harman. The Relief of Belsen drew an audience of 1.9m (9.4%) between 9 – 11:05pm, despite tough competition from the ever-popular Doc Martin over on ITV1 in the 9 – 10pm slot (8.2m, 33.7%).
BBC3 slipped a new reality format into the schedules at 10:30pm, but this one definitely has strong educational overtones. The premise of Leave Us Kids Alone is that twelve teenagers are given the chance to create and run their own school. For three weeks they must organise lessons, meals and activities for 30 pupils. It should be entertaining as the dozen ‘teachers’ have strong (and contrasting) personalities, but it may also be quite a revealing experiment as they bring new ideas to the classroom. The series made a promising start, no doubt benefiting from a strong lead-in courtesy of the EastEnders repeat and going on to average 216,330 (2%).
Dragon’s Den returned to BBC2 at 9pm for a fifth series, with entrepreneur James Caan joining the panel of ‘Dragons’ in place of amiable Australian Richard Farleigh. Series 4 (broadcast in February/March this year) was the most popular yet, averaging 3.3m (14%). The fifth series started in a similar vein, attracting 3.1m (12.6%).
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