BBC2’s adaptation of the Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall novels, starring Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis, was watched by nearly 4 million viewers, becoming the channel’s biggest new drama series since Rome a decade ago.
The first of the six-part series, which was applauded by critics, attracted 3.9 million viewers, a 16.5% share, from 9pm on Wednesday.
It was the biggest audience for a new BBC2 drama since sex and sandals epic Rome, the HBO co-production beginning with 6.6 million viewers in 2005.
It was also ahead of another critically acclaimed BBC2 drama, Line of Duty, which began its first series with 3.4 million.
It could not match the 6 million viewers who watched Victoria Wood’s BBC2 drama biopic Eric and Ernie on New Year’s Day, 2011, but that was a one-off, not a series.
Wolf Hall put its Wednesday prime-time rivals to the sword, with BBC1’s Crimewatch attracting 2.4 million viewers – a 10.2% audience share – while Channel 4’s 24 Hours in A&E was watched by 1.7 million viewers (5.6%).
The size of Wolf Hall’s audience led to some people on Twitter to suggest that the BBC had missed a trick by not putting the drama on BBC1.
The biggest show at 9pm was ITV’s annual National Television Awards, which was watched by 6.6 million viewers – a 28.1% share – between 7.30pm and 10pm.
Wolf Hall, based on the novel of the same name and its follow-up, Bring Up the Bodies, boosted BBC2’s peaktime share of the audience to 9.8% between 6pm and 10.30pm, twice Channel 4’s peaktime share of 4.9%.
