TV viewing round-up: September 2015

It may be hard to believe but barely four weeks ago there was a flicker of hope that England’s rugby union team might stand a chance of winning the Rugby World Cup 2015

Initially things got off to a solid start with the Opening Ceremony, featuring a right royal cameo by Prince Harry, attracting an average audience of 5.2 million.

Straight after all the glitz, glamour and fireworks there was a rugby match waiting to happen, with the three-hour England v Fiji game pulling in 8.3 million viewers for ITV.

One week later saw what would prove to be the decisive match of Group A, England v Wales, with just under 9.7 million people witnessing an injury-hindered Welsh team overcome the odds and effectively secure their place in the knock-out phase – a result that pushed England towards the unenviable position of being the first tournament hosts to fall at the group stage.

On the same channel, Downton Abbey returned for the final series of upstairs downstairs malarkey across the social divide of 1930s Britain.

Despite not hitting the ratings of 2013, the trials and tribulations of the masters and servants still gave ITV some much needed ratings cheers.

The opening episode of series six garnered an average rating of 9.6 million, making it the fourth most-watched programme of the month.

There was a triple whammy of ‘medical’ programmes this September, with the return of Doctor Who and Doc Martin, along with the debut of Doctor Foster.

It was the newbie drama that grabbed the highest ratings of the three shows, starring Suranne Jones as a wife who discovers her perfect life is not quite as perfect as she thinks. Doctor Foster pulled in an impressive audience of 8.1 million viewers for BBC One.

Grabbing the silver medal was ITV’s Doc Martin, starring Martin Clunes as the titular gruff medic, with an audience rating of 7.4 million, while Peter Capaldi’s second season in the title role of Doctor Who was left to settle for third place.

Featuring the annual return of the good Doctor’s deadliest enemies The Daleks, season 9 of ‘Nu Who’ kicked off with 6.5 million viewers.

BBC One secured the two highest rating programmes of the month, with The Great British Bake Off and Strictly Come Dancing Launch Show pulling in 12.7 million and 9.8 million, respectively.

Other programmes that did well this month include: New Tricks (6.5 million); the regular Strictly Come Dancing show (9.3 million); An Inspector Calls (6.8 million) and Lady Chatterley’s Lover (5.6 million).

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