Doc Martin beats Waking the Dead
The return of Doc Martin to ITV1 last night saw a peak of 8 million viewers tune in – beating stiff competition from BBC One’s Waking the Dead which had previously seen off Miss Marple.
Doc Martin succeeded last night where Miss Marple failed – it managed to beat BBC One’s Waking 
the Dead. The past two Sundays had seen the two crime drama shows clash but while Waking the Dead enjoyed over six million viewers poor Miss Marple was lagging behind with just five million viewers. However, all that changed last night when popular Martin Clunes drama Doc Martin returned to ITV1. The first episode of the new series pulled in an impressive 7.7 million viewers which peaked at 8.2 million viewers at one point. Meanwhile over on BBC One the cold-case drama still performed well with 6.4 million viewers but it wasn’t enough to continue its slot winning performance.
The second part of last night’s Waking the Dead story airs tonight on BBC One at 9pm.