Shayne Ward’s departure from Coronation Street as his character Aidan Connor committed suicide gave ITV the two most watched programmes across all channels on Monday night.
The first episode of the double bill was watched by six million viewers, giving the channel a 31% share of viewing, peaking at 6.6 million
The second episode, in which Aidan was reunited with his former fiance Eva Price, played by Catherine Tyldesley, was watched by 5.9 million viewers with a 31% share and a peak of 6.4 million, the broadcaster said.
If you have been affected by Aidan's story, you're not alone.
If you need someone to talk to, please visit: https://t.co/W35MEI9xnr where help and support is available.#Corrie #CoronationStreet #Aidan #ShayneWard pic.twitter.com/9Zy3CcPAio
— Coronation Street (@itvcorrie) May 7, 2018
The return of Peter Kay’s Car Share on BBC One pulled in 4.4 million with a 28.5% share, peaking at 4.7 million.
The comedian and his co-star Sian Gibson created an unscripted episode of the sitcom, in which the duo improvised throughout an entire car journey.
It was Kay’s first appearance on television since cancelling his live UK tour.
A totally ad-libbed, unscripted #CarShare? Oh, HELLS YEAH! 🙌🚘@Sianygibby @peterkay_co_uk pic.twitter.com/sZRIyGK5ns
— BBC Comedy (@bbccomedy) April 30, 2018
He introduced the ad-libbed episode of the Bafta-winning sitcom with a short video, saying: “What you’re going to watch tonight is called Car Share Unscripted.
“Basically what we’ve done is we’ve done something a bit different, what you’re about to watch is Sian and myself doing some improvisation.
“We used to drive around quite a bit and we just wanted to see what would happen if we filmed a whole journey without a script, just making it up, reacting to the radio, chatting and basically seeing what happened.
“So here is the result, I hope you enjoy it.”
The Coronation Street episodes saw Aidan take his own life off screen after Monday’s double bill.
In emotional scenes, Aidan returned the engagement ring to Eva and the pair told each other they loved each other and danced to their favourite song, Cosmic Love by Florence + The Machine.
Aidan and Eva's last dance 💔#Corrie #Aidan #Eva pic.twitter.com/PdnAvU27TF
— Coronation Street (@itvcorrie) May 7, 2018
Ward’s last scenes saw him sitting in the Rovers Return as the Florence + The Machine song played again and distant chatter of his friends and neighbours could be heard.
The final shot saw him sitting alone on the sofa with tears falling down his cheeks.