Special episodes break records

The BBC’s comedy department is boasting a ‘brilliant performance’ across the festive season, with several shows breaking audience records.

The Ghosts Christmas special It’s Behind You, aired in a prime slot on Christmas Day, attracted 5.9 million. The figure also makes it biggest comedy of the year.

Motherland also attracted its highest ever audience – 5 million – having been promoted to BBC One for its festive special.

The Detectorists also got its biggest audience (3.8 million for its special on Boxing Day) as did Inside No. 9 (2.3 million for The Bones of St Nicholas).

The Christmas Day edition of  Mrs Brown’s Boys drew 4.1 million, down on the 4.68million who saw the 2021 show and a fraction of the 11.4million Brendan O’Carroll’s show attracted at its peak.

Greg Davies’s The Cleaner: A Clean Christmas was seen by 3.2 million, its second highest audience, while Two Doors Down drew its highest audience for the current series so far, 2.6million.

The Bad Education Reunion special averaged 900,000 with just under half of the audience being 16-34s. The figure made it one of the top new launches on BBC Three behind Conversations with Friends and Drag Race UK vs The World.

Jon Petrie, director of BBC Comedy said: ‘Despite all the competition, I’m proud to say that BBC comedy is still the biggest fish in the pond delivering a unique public service offer that was once again showcased throughout the festive season.

‘Across the UK, audiences were treated to a variety of distinctive shows from new and established comedy voices that reflect our highly cherished British sense of humour. We look forward to serving up more comedy treats for BBC viewers in 2023.’

All the ratings data comes from audience research body Barb, based on seven-day consolidated viewing across all devices.

Published: 9 Jan 2023