Queen beats BGT as 11.6m watch speech

THE Queen’s VE Day speech on Friday pulled in more viewers than Britain’s Got Talent on Saturday night, figures showed yesterday.

On the main channels, the monarch’s address – in which she said UK streets were ‘filled with the love and care we have for each other’ – was watched by 11.6million.

ITV’s hit talent show, presented by Ant and Dec and starring Simon Cowell, was watched by only 7.1million.

Friday’s speech which aired at 9pm was only the sixth time the Queen has made a special broadcast during her reign.

BBC1 attracted an audience of 8.7million for the speech, according to overnight figures, while ITV’s broadcast got another 2.4million and 500,000 tuned in on Channel 5. During her address, the monarch said: ‘Today it may seem hard we cannot mark this special anniversary as we would wish. Instead we remember from our homes and our doorsteps. But our streets are not empty – they are filled with the love and the care we have for each other. We are still a nation those brave soldiers, sailors and airmen would recognise and admire.’ Despite beating Britain’s Got Talent, the audience figures for the broadcast were down on her message at the beginning of April about the coronavirus pandemic, which was watched by 24million – with 14million of those on BBC1. Boris Johnson’s speech when he announced the lockdown was seen by more than 27million. The figures for the Queen’s VE Day Speech do not include audiences from smaller channels.