Marple Loses Viewers
The second new Marple film, starring Julia McKenzie as Agatha Christie’s famous sleuth, lost half a million viewers last night as BBC One’s cold-case series Waking the Dead increased its ratings.
It was battle of the detective dramas once more last night as ITV’s latest Marple film went against the 
new series of BBC One’s cold-case series Waking the Dead. The new Marple film was the second to star Julia Mc Kenzie since she took over the role from previous actress Geraldine Mc Ewan but ratings for the ITV series tumbled by half a million viewers from it weeks film. The drama managed to attract 4.5 million viewers to ITV1 between 8pm and 10pm. Over on BBC One from 9pm was the second story in the new series of Waking the Dead which stars Sue Johnston and Trevor Eve. The series increased its ratings by nearly half a million with 6.5 million viewers compared to 6.1 million who tuned in for last week’s opening story.
The series was helped in part by the second part of the new Casualty season opener. The first episode of two-part season opener drew 5.1 million viewers on Saturday evening. Sunday night’s edition, the second part, drew 5.4 million viewers. The medical drama opened in typical explosive fashion with an explosion at a shopping centre – yet another chuck of Holby blown up. The long-running BBC drama series is now in its 24th season.