TELEVISION / Statistics

EastEnders is presently pipping Coronation Street at the top of the ratings with an audience of 16.64 million compared to Coronation Street's 15.77 million. The BBC's most popular Australian soap, Neighbours, is also outstripping its ITV counterpart, Home and Away, by approximately one million per episode. The largest figure of the week recorded an audience of 13.25m. Emmerdale's best of the week was 9.72 million, Brookside's was 5.25 million. Thicker Than Water, the BBC1 two-part thriller which starred Theresa Russell and Jonathan Pryce and won general acclaim, fell away from an audience of 7.2 million for the first part to 5.65 million for the second.

Figures for week ending 1 August