Parade's End marches on but loses out in battle for Friday night ratings

BBC2's Ford Madox Ford adaptation Parade's End shipped nearly a million viewers on its second outing on Friday, averaging just over 2 million. Parade's End, adapted by Sir Tom Stoppard, and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall, averaged 2.2 million viewers and a 9.8% audience share in the 9pm hour, including 91,000 on BBC HD. These are still impressive figures for BBC2, but down from the 3.1 million and 14.7% share for the previous Friday's opener . 9pm competition included BBC1 comedies In With the Flynns (9pm: 3 million/13.4%) and Mrs Brown's Boys (9.30pm: 4.4 million/20% – repeat), ITV1's Uefa Super Cup Live (7.30pm-10.10pm: 2.1 million/9.9%) and Celebrity Big Brother: Live Eviction (2.1 million/9.7%). The second day of Channel 4's live Paralympics coverage had a five-minute peak of 3.8 million – including 200,000 on Paralympics Extra – at 9pm for athletics coverage. Channel 4 was the most-watched network for 15 minutes from 9pm, averaging 3 million viewers. Overall, Channel 4's Paralympics 2012 programming averaged 2.4 million viewers and an 11.5% audience share between 7.30pm and 10.30pm. All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC and some other channels including Sky1) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook .