Ready to be depressed? Last Saturday night, the BBC broadcast a terrific slice of science fiction television, and by common consensus, the best episode of Doctor Who thus far this year. Silence In The Library – and you can read our thoughts on it here – was everything you could realistically want from the best part of an hour on a Saturday night.

Silence In The Library also gave Doctor Who its worst ratings of the year, as the programme – for the first time since it returned to the airwaves in 2005 – wasn’t even the most popular programme at the time it was being shown. 5.4 million viewers tuned in to see the programme, just over a quarter of the viewing audience at the time.

So what was everyone watching instead? What programmes were on that could have possibly eclipsed Doctor Who for quality, entertainment and Saturday night joy?

Britain’s Got fecking Talent.

ITV’s juggernaut hit 13 million viewers at its peak, and easily won the battle to be the most popular programme of the night. Also competing against the BBC’s own vacuous talent contest, I’d Do Anything, Doctor Who came in fifth for the day, and just scraped into the top 30 for the week.

If that’s what people choose to watch, then perhaps the schedules should just be a rolling programme of Coronation Street, EastEnders, Holby and reality TV shows. Oh, hang on…