TV viewing round-up: January 2014

The long awaited return of Baker Street’s most famous fictional resident (Danger Mouse is a close second), was the runaway success of January, despite a mixed reaction to the resolution series two’s cliffhanger, which has kept internet obsessives busy for the last two years.

The opening episode of BBC One’s Sherlock, which saw an explanation (or two) of sorts as to how the high-functioning sociopath managed to survive the Reichenbach fall, attracted a very healthy rating of 12.7 million.

BBC One’s reinvention of 19th century novel, The Three Musketeers, managed to do something which was thought impossible: making the 1993 ‘Brat pack’ adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s classic tale look exciting and interesting.

Not even the appearance of Peter Capaldi as the dastardly Cardinal Richelieu could save the first episode from feeling a bit underwhelming.

Despite this, The Musketeers launched pretty strongly with an audience of just under 9.3 million (subsequent weeks have seen ratings fall consistently).

ITV finally had something to cheer about from its comedy department, still smarting from the misfire that was The Job Lot and the underperforming Vicious. This was thanks to an old BBC One favourite from Lawrence Marks and Maurice Gran.

Returning to our screens after a sixteen year hiatus, Birds of a Feather caught up with the present day lives and loves of Essex girls Sharon and Tracey, plus their amorous next door neighbour Dorian.

With a début audience of 9.2 million, Chigwell’s finest gave ITV its highest ratings for a comedy series since the long-forgotten Barbara.

Elsewhere the annual popularity contest that is The National Television Awards 2014 returned this month on ITV, hosted gamefully by Dermot O’Leary moonlighting from The X Factor duties.

The show featured the usual array of suspects winning the same awards, including ‘Best Entertainment Presenters’ going to Ant and Dec (again) and Matt Smith winning best drama performance for Doctor Who.

Let’s face it, ITV may as well have just put on a re-run of last year’s show.

At least Benedict Cumberbatch was able to spruce up his acceptance speech by showing off his knees, which went down spectacularly with his legion of fans on Tumblr.

It gave the 6.3 million viewers watching at home something to talk about other than the standard ‘who really should have won the ‘Best Soap award?’ argument that happens up and down the country every single year.

It was the end of an era over on fictional Caribbean island Saint-Marie, where strait-laced policeman Richard Poole met a sticky end while catching up with his old college friends. There is probably a moral in there somewhere, though I’m struggling to think of it.

With DI Poole now playing the murder victim, it was left to newbie DI Humphrey Goodman to solve the ice pick murder case. Around 8.7 million people tuned in to find out how a simple case of identity theft led to the murder of the popular detective.

Other programmes that did well in January included two-part romantic drama The 7.39, which was watched by 7.4 million viewers; the 98th edition of Midsomer Murders, seen by 6.4 million viewers; the return of Benidorm, with an audience of 7.2 million; The Voice, now with added Kylie, had 9.4 million people watching and the ratings juggernaut that is Call The Midwife launched its third series with 11.4 million viewers.

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