не думаю, что past continuous здесь уместно

Да, я тоже посмотрела грамматику Oxford - Past Continuous употребляется (среди прочего):
- to express an activity that was in progress at every moment during a period of time. I was working all day yesterday.
- to express an incomplete activity in the past. I was reading a book during the flight (But I didn't finish it).
The Past Simple expresses past actions as simple, complete acts. What did you do last night? I stayed at home and watched the football.