On television on Friday night, the Duke of Edinburgh was everywhere — but the ratings battle was won by a motley crew of armchair TV critics holding forth on Line of Duty and Louis Theroux’s latest documentary.
Gogglebox, which started at 9pm on Channel 4, was the most-viewed programme on a single channel on Friday, attracting 4.2 million viewers.
All the main broadcasters suffered pronounced slumps in their viewing figures as they shelved scheduled primetime programming in favour of rolling royal news. The decision was hardly universally popular: the BBC was forced to take the unusual step of setting up a dedicated complaints page as the extent of its multichannel royal coverage drew protests from viewers.
A form on its website read: “We’re receiving complaints