Potter Beats Who In Battle For Sunday Ratings

In the battle of the one-off Sunday dramas, ITV1 managed to outperform BBC One, with Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe proving more popular than current timelord David Tennant.

My Boy Jack, which told the story of Rudyard Kipling’s son Jack’s WW1 experience and ultimate death, pulled in an impressive 5.5 million viewers on Armistice Night. Viewing for the drama peaked at 6.3 million for the first 15 minutes, with viewing share averaging 25.6% for its two-hour duration.

Over on BBC One, Learners, which starred the 10th Doctor, David Tennant, narrowly lost out, with 5.3 million viewers. Written by and also starring Jessica Hynes, the driving school comedy drama also had its greatest audience during the initial 15 minutes (5.5 million viewers).

Elsewhere on Sunday night the return of 60s drama Heartbeat easily outstripped rival 8pm offerings from BBC One, BBC Two and Channel 4.

The season opener featuring the first appearance of new PC, Joe Mason, attracted 7.7 million viewers. Over on BBC One Antiques Roadshow managed to pull in 5.2 million, while Simon Cowell’s appearance on Top Gear garnered 6.7 million adults.

Finally, Channel 4’s long-running reality show, Wife Swap, this week featuring a non-celebrity couple, only held sway with 1.6 million adult viewers.

The movie premiere of Mr & Mrs Smith starring glamazon couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, was watched by 2.3 million adult viewers, more than Five’s repeat showing of Tightrope which had 883,000 viewers.

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s Long Way Down documentary brought in 3.5 million viewers for BBC Two.

Saturday saw Strictly Come Dancing continue to keep its ratings lead over The X Factor, with 8.8 million tuning into the dance comp and 7.4 million watching the singing show.

Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks, ITV2 and Sky One.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk Channel 4: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv