all major television channels. The event makes UK television history as the country's largest ever outside broadcast, while proceedings are watched by an average 10 million viewers. Provisional viewing figures released the following day suggest BBC audiences peaked at 7.1 million and ITV at 3.3 million. The BBC coverage is presented by David Dimbleby and ITV's by Sir Trevor McDonald. Emmerdale confirm the axing of their Soapstars family. Ruth Abram leaves the series immediately, with the other four actors appearing on screen until the Summer. 10 April Producers of The Experiment are forced to reedit parts of the programme ahead of its debut after some participants complain about the way they are shown in the series. BBC Four airs Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play, in which Patricia Hodge plays the role of Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands War. The play was originally written in 1986, but shelved by the BBC because of an upcoming general election and the play's perceived pro-Thatcher stance. The play has separate radio and television versions, airing on Radio 4 on 6 April and gives BBC Four an audience of 174,000, the channel's highest audience since its launch a month earlier. 12 April - Tamzin Outhwaite leaves EastEnders as Mel Owen. 17 April – The first Helen Rollason Cancer Care Centre, named for the sports presenter Helen Rollason who died of cancer in 1999 is opened in Chelmsford, Essex. 18 April – An episode of The Bill in which six characters are killed off in a petrol bomb attack is watched by 8.6 million viewers, giving the show its largest audience of the year so far. 20 April – The final edition of The Generation Game presented by Jim Davidson is broadcast. 21 April – Blackadder: Back & Forth makes its terrestrial television debut on BBC One. The programme having been scheduled to air on 31 March, but was postponed because of ongoing coverage of the death of the Queen Mother. 22 April Liquid News presenter Christopher Price is found dead at his London home. An inquest later returns a verdict of death by natural causes after hearing he died of heart failure caused by meningoencephalitis, a rare brain infection similar to meningitis. The pay-per-view movie channel ITV Select closes. The channel, a joint venture between ITV Digital and SDN, is taken off air after ITV Digital's administrators withdrew its funding. 25 April – ITV Digital