Jamie's luck

I know the BBC's supposed to be considering ways to help out Channel 4 - rather than hand over some of the licence fee - and Tuesday night's schedule suggests it's already doing its bit. Jamie's Ministry of Food has stirred a small controversy for its attitude to Rotherham, but he's pretty lucky that Tuesday night is pretty turgid.

The show increased its audience to 3.1 million/14% share from last week's 3 million/13% - but I'm not sure it would have happened if the competition hadn't been so weak. BBC1's thin Steve Coogan vehicle, Sunshine - he's a Mancunian, wouldn't you know - opened with 3.7 million/17% share, and it combined with a disappointing 1 million/5% share for the new but somewhat esoteric British Style Genius series. With an unexceptional ITV1 offering Cops with Cameras had 3.6 million/16% share and Five's consistent CSI Miami with 2.6 million/11% share, Jamie's show looked better than it might have seemed.

Channel 4 increased its primetime share to almost 10% - which will be something of a relief.