When we need a proper picture of our priorities, look no further than what we watch on TV. And while Aftershock – a series of documentaries telling us how screwed we are – fared quite well, the real winner was Prime Time on Monday with a jaw-droppingly giant slice of audience figures (653,700) for a report on... tyre-recycling. So forget programmes on trying to find ways out of the recession, new constitutions, or Namas for the little people: what we really want to watch are documentaries about wheels. RTÉ heralded this viewer-grabbing coup with a press release."This was the highest audience so far for a programme in the summer run of the award-winning, in-depth investigative series," it said. But, hark. Sometimes in analysing viewing figures, much like avant garde neo-classical music, it's all about listening to the notes they aren't playing – in other words, what was on at the same time? Maybe Prime Time figures were a whopper because the other choices included The Tudors, a drama reconstruction of Princess Di's wedding and the story of Yasser Arafat as Gaeilge. Not taking anything away from Prime Time, of course, we're just sayin' is all.