TV viewing round-up: December 2014

In one of the more obvious actor role synergies this month the Christmas Day edition of Doctor Who saw Nick Frost turn up as St Nick himself.

Featuring a tale that had riffs on popular sci-fi films such as Alien, The Thing From Another World and Inception, ‘Last Christmas’ showed that while Stephen Moffat may be running out of ideas, at least he’s stealing from the best.

Not that the great British public was that fussed about the familiarity as an audience of 8.3 million tuned in for the hour-long special.

A double dose of Miranda Hart on Christmas Day didn’t scare off viewers with both her self-titled sitcom and Call The Midwife pulling in respectable audiences.

First up was Miranda with 8.7 million viewers, immediately followed by her more serious role in the 1950s drama, which attracted an audience of 9.4 million.

The final battle between ITV’s The X Factor and BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing, which sounds more exciting than it was, was comfortably won by the Beeb’s celebrity extravaganza.

Saturday 20 December’s grand finale of the dancing show drew in the bigger audience with 11.7 million viewers, compared to Simon Cowell’s faltering singing contest which grabbed 9.9 million viewers on 14 December.

When all else fails there’s always one suavely dressed, Martini-drinking womaniser ITV can rely on, with the free-to-air television première of super spy 007’s most recent outing Skyfall.

The film, which marked 50 cinematic years of Ian Fleming’s most famous literary character (if you don’t consider Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to be a character), gave the commercial broadcaster a solid rating of 7.2 million viewers on Christmas Eve.

Not to be outdone on the blockbuster movie front, Boxing Day saw BBC One broadcast Marvel Avengers Assemble, for those people who hadn’t already seen it on pay TV (or at the cinemas).

Turning out to be one of the more enjoyable experiences of the festive television schedule, just over 6 million viewers tuned in to see exactly why half the internet is in love with Tom Hiddleston.

The 10th series of The Apprentice drew to a close this month, with Lord Sugar choosing an existing service over the slightly more risky prospect of creating a product from scratch.

In what also ended up as the final appearance of Lord Sugar’s right hand man Nick Hewer, the last edition drew in a respectable 7.3 million viewers.

Other programmes that did well during December include: Still Open All Hours, with 7.3 million viewers; Last Tango In Halifax seen by 7.4 million people; the final of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! watched by 11.2 million viewers; and David Walliams’ latest adaptation of The Boy In The Dress, which pulled in an audience of 6.3 million.

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