Prisoners' Wives finale captures 4.3m viewers

BBC1 drama Prisoners' Wives came to the end of its run with more than 4 million viewers on Tuesday night, enough to beat ITV1's live FA Cup football but not Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Prisoners' Wives finished with 4.3 million viewers, a 17% share of the audience from 9pm. The BBC1 show was down from the 4.9 million (20.4%) who watched the first episode of its six-part run five weeks ago. ITV1's coverage of Chelsea's fifth-round 2-0 win over Birmingham, their first match since the departure of manager André Villas-Boas, averaged 3.5 million viewers, a 14.2% share between 7.30pm and 10pm. Live coverage of the match, which kicked off at 7.45pm, averaged 3.8 million. Both were beaten by Channel 4's Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, which had 5.2 million viewers (20.8%) between 9pm and 10pm across Channel 4, bouncing back from a ratings dip to 4.4 million last Tuesday against ITV1's Brit awards. Sky Sports 2 had the other big live football of the night, Arsenal's Uefa Champions League last 16 second leg match against Milan, in which they tried to overturn a 4-0 deficit from the first leg. The Gunners almost managed it, winning 3-0, delivering an average of 1.2 million viewers (5%) to Sky Sports 2 between 7pm and 10.15pm, with a five-minute peak of 2.4 million. Programme title of the day Channel 5's Nazi Titanic: Revealed, a documentary about a 1942 German propaganda film about the sinking of the famous ship, had 1.3 million viewers, a 5.4% share between 8pm and 9pm. It was beaten by Channel 4's Supersize v Superskinny, which had 2.5 million viewers (10.3%) between 8pm and 9pm, and the last of BBC2's Alex Polizzi: the Fixer, watched by 2 million viewers, 8.4% of the audience. Almost programme title of the day Horizon's Solar Storms – The Threat to Planet Earth, was watched by 1.9 million viewers, a 7.6% share, between 9pm and 10pm, including 105,000 viewers on BBC HD. In case you missed it, Radio Times tells us it was about the "fit of violent activity on the sun [which] could propel billions of tons of superheated gas and pulses of energy towards earth [with] the power to close down our modern technological civilisation". And overnights. It beat the last in the first series of Channel 5's US drama Body of Proof, which had 1.5 million viewers (5.8%), also between 9pm and 10pm. 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 .