The Royal Bodyguard drops below 3 million viewers

David Jason’s new sitcom The Royal Bodyguard continued to lose ratings for its third outing on BBC One last night.

It all started so well for the new BBC One comedy on Boxing Day with 7.1 million viewers – final figures placed the ratings at over 8 million viewers – but the reviews were bad and the ratings soon dropped.

Last week’s second episode saw ratings plunge to 4.5 million viewers and yesterday evening’s episode saw a further decline in ratings. According to overnight figures just 2.9 million viewers tuned in to The Royal Bodyguard – a second series looks unlikely.

The latest episode of Irish comedy Mrs Brown’s Boys built on its poor lead in with an impressive 4.7 million viewers at 9.30 for the latest episode starring Brendan O’Carroll.

The return of Lynda La Plante’s Above Suspicion: Silent Scream was a hit for ITV1 with an impressive 6.3 million viewers at 9pm – up on last year’s second series launch figures.

Also back last night for a new series was Channel Four drama Shameless which kicked off its ninth season with 1.8 million viewers. Celebrity Big Brother continued on Channel Five with 2.1 million viewers followed by When Paddy Met Sally with 1.2 million viewers.

Pictured: David Jason, inset in more popular series’ A Touch of Frost for Yorkshire Television and Crossroads for ATV.