Cracknell can’t prevent TV dip

The Boat Race was watched by 4.8million Tv viewers on sunday — an 600,000 dip for BBC1 — despite the added appeal of double olympic champion James Cracknell.

Cracknell, 46, helped Cambridge to victory over oxford in a broadcast which peaked at 4.8m viewers, with an average of just below 3m — down 800,000 on last year.

But the BBC are believed to be happy with the figures, given the race’s difficult 3.15pm timeslot.

sunday’s programme, fronted by Clare Balding, stretched over two hours and 40 minutes.