Mr Bates vs The Post Office smashes ITV drama records, beating Downton
Mr Bates vs The Post Office is ITV's biggest new drama in over a decade.
It's safe to say that the past two weeks, people have really only been talking about one drama making waves and it's Mr Bates vs The Post Office. The ITV drama has had a stellar launch on the broadcaster but it's now been revealed that it's actually smashed some pretty major milestones for ITV also.
Not only is the series the most-watched show of 2024 so far but it has also now been announced that Mr Bates vs The Post Office is ITV’s biggest new drama in over a decade, beating the launch of Downton Abbey in 2010.
The four-part series has now averaged a staggering 9.8m viewers across its episodes, which includes seven day viewing across all devices plus pre-TX viewing.
Including post-seven day viewing, the first three episodes have now all been watched by over 10.6m viewers, with the launch currently averaging 10.9m after ten days of catch up.
To put it in terms of other popular shows and channels, Mr Bates vs The Post Office is the biggest drama across all channels since BBC's Line of Duty season 6 in 2021. The same goes for it being the biggest new drama across all channels since BBC's Bodyguard in 2018.
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As for ITV, it's their biggest drama since Broadchurch in 2017.
The magnificent feat of the series continues to dominate headlines, namely because of the impact of the drama on real-world decisions. After premiering, former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells agreed to hand back her CBE with immediate effect amid the fallout from the Horizon IT scandal.
Similarly, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that victims of the Post Office scandal will be "swiftly exonerated and compensated".
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The new drama tells the story of the British Post Office scandal which saw hundreds of subpostmasters and mistresses falsely accused of theft, fraud and false accounting following a malfunction of their IT system. The scandal was a well-known one but the ITV drama brought the issue to the fore, shining a light on the injustices and stories of those impacted by the chilling true story.
The cast was led by The Long Shadow's Toby Jones as Alan Bates, joined by the likes of Julie Hesmondhalgh, Monica Dolan and more. The success of the show has also led to the broadcaster airing repeats of episodes, just two weeks after the original broadcasts.
Read more:
- ITV shakes up schedule to add Mr Bates vs The Post Office repeats
- BBC adds last-minute repeat of Post Office Scandal Panorama special
Upon the announcement earlier this week that the four-part drama is the most-watched show of the year so far, Kevin Lygo, managing director of media and entertainment at ITV, said: "The unwavering success of Mr Bates vs The Post Office demonstrates the undeniable power of TV, particularly public service broadcasting.
"Aside from it being a ratings hit, dramatising the story with such a high calibre of British actors has reignited the campaign for justice nearly 25 years on, for a group of ordinary people – and the entire nation is behind them."
Mr Bates vs The Post Office is available to watch now on ITVX. For more, check out our dedicated Drama page or our full TV Guide and Streaming Guide.
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