Midsomer Beats Austen

The BBC’s lavish new dramatisation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility was pipped on New Year’s Day by a new episode of ITV1’s Midsomer Murders.

The most dangerous village in the UK proved a popular choice with 5.7 million adults on average tuning in to the new Midsomer Murders, while Andrew Davies’ sexed-up interpretation of the Jane Austen classic could only manage 4.9 million.

The drama started strongly, but around 700,000 adults turned off after the first 15 minutes. This could be, as Andrew Billen describes it in today’s Times, because “Andrew Davies’s adaptation of Sense and Sensibility began with all the subtlety of a soft-porn flick.”

BBC1’s Morecombe and Wise: In Their Own Words drew a respectable 4.7 million adults from 6pm yesterday, while family films Finding Neverland and Mary Poppins on BBC Two and ITV1 respectively fared well with 2.4 million and 2.9 million each.

EastEnders won the ratings crown for the day with the happy soap claiming 7.2 million victims at 7.30pm, despite ITV1’s best efforts in scheduling an Emmerdale double-bill at the same time, which managed an average of 6.2 million.

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