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Twist deals ITV a winner

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From: Evening Standard - London
Date: 19991129
Author:SARAH SHANNON

ITV was today declared the winner of the costume drama war which it fought out with the BBC last night.

Its 6 million adaptation of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist claimed an average of 8.5 million viewers while Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives And Daughters on the BBC won 7.2 million viewers, according to unofficial overnight viewing figures. Both period dramas were broadcast at 9pm.

Although ITV appeared to trounce the BBC's period drama offering, industry insiders said the triumph was not as clear-cut as the initial figures suggested. "Oliver Twist is a much better known work than Wives And ...

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