BBC’s Jackie wins battle on the box

IT attempted to tap into the nostalgia of New Years past.

But STV’s Thingummyjig Hogmanay Ceilidh failed to spark the imagination after the channel was beaten again in the ratings war by rival Jackie Bird, pictured, and her BBC Scotland special.

TV’s annual ‘battle of the bells’ was won by the Hogmanay Live show, which drew an average audience of just over 790,000 compared with 174,500 for STV.

The BBC programme, hosted by Miss Bird for the 18th time, took an average of 55 per cent of the TV audience north of the Border, compared with 12.2 per cent for its rivals. The BBC coverage, from Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket, saw performances from old favourites Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain as well as singer KT Tunstall. At midnight, the BBC’s coverage peaked at 1.05million, an audience share of 66 per cent. But despite the BBC’s ratings victory, the programme fell well short of last year’s Hogmanay Live show, which saw average ratings hit just over one million viewers.