BBC1’s hit spy thriller The Night Manager proved equally popular on the iPlayer TV service with the six-part series attracting almost 10m views in March.
The updated version of John le Carre’s 1993 novel, featuring Thor star Tom Hiddleston as the everyman-turned-spy Jonathan Pine, helped push iPlayer TV viewing to 244m views in total in March.
The six-episode series drew a total of 9.8m views on the iPlayer, with every one attracting at least 1 million requests to view on the TV service.
Three of the five most-requested TV shows on the iPlayer were episodes of The Night Manager.
The most popular was episode three, which was the only show in March to draw an audience of more than two million (2.01m).
BBC3 abduction drama Thirteen was the next most popular show on the iPlayer with a total of 7.95m requests to view the five episodes in March.
The five episodes of the drama all placed in the top 15 most popular iPlayer TV shows in April, with the first episode the highest ranked at 1.89m.
The corporation has hailed the success of Thirteen, which has drawn similar levels of viewing to a TV drama, as a vindication of its decision to make BBC3 an online-only service.
While the show has undoubtedly been a success on the iPlayer, it should be noted that Thirteen was also broadcast on BBC2.
