Ant and Dec's Takeaway once again tops Saturday night viewing figures

Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway has trumped its competition again to dominate Saturday night television ratings.

The latest episode of the popular ITV series was watched by 7.3 million people, peaking with an audience of 8.1 million.

The programme enjoyed a 36% share of the audience during prime time television viewing.

BBC One's charity bonanza, Let's Sing And Dance For Comic Relief, enjoyed its highest audience figures of the series.

It got an average of 3.5 million people tuning in to watch celebrities perform as music stars to raise money for charity.

The show, hosted by Great British Bake Off stars Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, had a peak viewing figure of 4.2 million.

Saturday night's instalment saw The One Show's reporting team win the public vote to secure a place in next week's live final, while presenter Alison Hammond won the judges' vote with her rendition of Missy Elliott's Get Ur Freak On.

The BBC and ITV shows overlapped briefly, with Saturday Night Takeaway broadcast from 7:30pm to 8.30pm and Let's Sing And Dance For Comic Relief airing from 6.45pm to 8pm.

Singing contest The Voice UK had a lower average viewing figure of 4.2 million, compared with last week's average of 4.6 million.

However, this week's peak of 5.6 million was an increase from last week's peak of five million.

ITV's viewing figures include catch-up channel +1.

Late afternoon viewing saw 4.7 million people tune into the Six Nations Rugby Union Ireland versus England game, which saw Ireland beat England 13-9.

The match, which was broadcast on ITV from 4pm to 7.30pm, peaked with just under double the average viewing number, with 8.6 million people tuning in.