Festive ratings highlights: Sherlock, Dickensian & Fungus

Boxing Day

The Boxing Day drama contest was won by the Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Productions series, which was stripped across three days.

The mystery, which followed the disappearances of a group of 10 people, went on to grip an average of 5.5m (25.3%) over the course of its series.

It was comfortably ahead of the 4.6m (22.2%) series average recorded by BBC1’s previous Christie adaptation, Partners in Crime, from July in a Sunday 9pm slot.

The first episode of Red Planet Pictures’ 20-part murder mystery performed well, beating BBC1’s equivalent 7pm Boxing Day offering in 2014 - The Boy In The Dress, which delivered 4.8m (21.1%).

It also topped the 3.7m (18.7%) who tuned in to the opener of Tony Jordan’s First World War drama The Passing Bells in November 2014.

Channel 4 returned to the headquarters of toy manufacturer Lego from 8pm to 9pm. Waddell Media’s documentary was behind the previous one-off about the brand, which informed 2.5m (11.8%) on a Sunday in June.

On ITV, Peter Pan-inspired drama Peter and Wendy tanked, falling well below the channel’s slot average of 4.7m (23.2%).

Sunday 27 December

ITV also struggled the following day after Bentley Productions’ one-off drama was hobbled by the second episode of And Then There Were None on BBC1.

The adaptation of Raymond Briggs’ children’s book overtook the launch of the second series of The Moaning of Life to become the channel’s most-watched show of 2015.

Imaginarium Studios and DNeg TV’s show, which was stripped across three episodes,went on to entertain an average of 438,000 (2.1%).

October Films and GroupM Entertainment’s follow-up to Walking The Nile narrowly lost out to the first series, which opened with 2.1m (8.7%) in January 2015.

New Year’s Eve

The coverage of the fireworks from Embankment on the River Thames peaked with 12.8m (64%) at 12.05am. It was easily the biggest programme of the day and topped the 12.3m (63%) who tuned in last year. 

Earlier in the evening, Channel 4’s Alan Carr’s New Year Specstacular entertained 1.4m (8.3%) from 9pm to 11.10pm, down on the 1.6m (9.1%) who tuned in last year. It was preceded by TFI New Year’s Eve special, which pulled in 1.4m (7.3%) from 7.30pm to 9pm.

New Year’s Day

The one-off mystery, which transported the Baker Street sleuth to Victorian times, was the most-watched show of the day but it failed to outperform the opening episode of the third series.

The Empty Hearse was seen by 9.2m on 1 January 2014, although its share was slightly lower at 33.8%.