Roadkill pulled in 5.1 million viewers
Roadkill, starring Hugh Laurie, attracted a big audience on Sunday night as viewers quickly became hooked on the new David Hare penned thriller.
The six-part drama, which sees Laurie play charismatic politician Peter Laurence, pulled in just over five million viewers.
But Roadkill isn’t BBC1’s biggest drama opening of the year - that honour, Broadcast reports, is held by the first episode of The Salisbury Poisonings which pulled in a remarkable 7.2 million viewers back in June.
Teasing Roadkill, Hugh says: “Roadkill is a political drama about the price of success in the political realm and what it demands of the people who do it, and those around the person who does it. It’s pretty unforgiving.”
Roadkill capped off what was a great weekend ratings wise for the BBC. The highlight undoubtedly was the return of Strictly Come Dancing.
Strictly fans were clearly desperate for the new series to kick off as a massive audience tuned in on Saturday night.
An impressive 8.6 million viewers - topping last year’s figure - settled down to enjoy the Strictly Come Dancing 2020 launch show.
The start of the series had been delayed from its normal start slot as the BBC has reduced the number of episodes due to the coronavirus crisis.
And clearly that meant viewers were that extra bit keen to finally see the celebrities paired up with their professional dancers.
The Beeb will no doubt be hoping for more bumper ratings as both Strictly and Roadkill continue this weekend (see our TV guide for more shows to enjoy).
Strictly continues on Saturday evening at 7.25pm, while the second episode of Roadkill is on at 9pm on Sunday. All episodes of the six-parter are now on iPlayer.
