Titanic sets sail with nearly 7 million viewers

ITV‘s lavish adaptation of Titanic set sail last night with nearly 7 million viewers while BBC One‘s Upstairs Downstairs reached the eve of World War Two with less than 5 million viewers.

ITV‘s highly anticipated adaptation of the story of Titanic and its sinking premiered last night to impressive ratings. The four-part drama, to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking, has been penned by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. Amongst the cast of the multi-million pound drama are Linus Roache, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Sophie Winkleman, Toby Jones, Maria Doyle Kennedy and Celia Imrie. According to overnight ratings Titanic launched with 6.8 million viewers with nearly half a million more viewers watching an hour later via the time-shift channel giving the drama a strong combined audience of more than 7 million viewers.

The seventh season of Dancing on Ice drew to a close with Emmerdale actor Matthew Wolfenden being crowned the winner beating rivals Jorgie Porter and Chico. The seventh season finale drew 7 million viewers to ITV1.

BBC One’s Upstairs Downstairs drew to a conclusion at 9pm last night as war broke out in Europe and Lady Agnes (Keeley Hawes) discovered husband Hallam’s (Ed Stoppard) affair with sister Lady Persie (Claire Foy). The period drama bowed out with 4.5 million viewers according to overnight ratings data. However, each week the drama’s overnight’s figures have risen when final consolidated ratings have been released meaning the actual figure for the episode may be higher.