BBC1’s The Night Manager pulled further away from Julian Fellowes’ Doctor Thorne with double the ITV drama’s audience on Sunday.
The Night Manager attracted 6 million viewers, a 27.2% share, from 9pm, while Doctor Thorne drew 3 million viewers (13.5%) at the same time on ITV, down about a quarter from the 3.8 million (17%) who watched its debut last week.
Doctor Thorne has been touted as the new Downton Abbey in the battle to win viewers as they settle down for their weekly dose of Sunday night costume drama.
There was another one to choose from last night with the return of Julie Walters in Channel 4’s Indian Summers, which picked up 1.3 million viewers, a 6% share, also from 9pm.
But neither show managed to bag the biggest audience of the night – that accolade went to BBC1’s Countryfile, with 6.9 million viewers, a 33.8% share, from 7pm.
Vanishing trick
ITV’s new supernatural drama Houdini & Doyle – starring Stephen Mangan as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Michael Weston as Harry Houdini in the world’s least likely crime-busting duo – debuted with 912,000 viewers, a 7.1% share after the news at 10.15pm.
The drama was down 5.7% on the slot’s three-month slot average. After the one-off free-to-air showing, the rest of Houdini & Doyle will be shown on ITV Encore.
