Bodyguard hit a new ratings high on Sunday night, with 10.4 million viewers tuning in for the final episode of the drama – a larger average audience than any other UK TV programme this year outside the World Cup.
The show, starring Richard Madden, grew its audience through its run and gave hope to traditional broadcasters that it is still possible to attract large audiences in an era in which streaming services such as Netflix are growing their market share. Millions more viewers are expected to watch the show’s dramatic final 75-minute episode on the BBC’s iPlayer catch-up service.
The ratings meant Bodyguard gained the largest audience for a drama on British TV since ITV’s Downton Abbey at the start of the decade. The last time the BBC had a comparable audience for one of its dramas was the Christmas Day episode of Doctor Who in 2008.
The only comparable audience this year in British TV was coverage of this spring’s royal wedding, which briefly peaked at about 18 million viewers across all channels, although the average audience was substantially lower.
Bodyguard, written by Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio, has attracted praise but was also accused of perpetuating stereotypes by including a Muslim woman as a hijab-wearing suicide bomber.
Anjli Mohindra, who played the character Nadia, told the Daily Telegraph that she was initially concerned by the role: “When I first read that the show opens with a suicide bomber on a train who was wearing a hijab, I just felt like I didn’t want to be a part of the Islamophobic perpetuated narrative”
“I have a huge amount of respect for Jed and his choices and a huge amount of trust in the decisions he makes, but I didn’t feel the hijab was completely necessary.”
She also said many ethnic minority characters were two-dimensional and it felt “empowering” to overturn the stereotype in the final episode. “We have this idea that women who wear hijabs are oppressed and do so not of their own will, and that is something we need to think about and take stock of because that is absolutely not the case.”
Meanwhile, former home secretary Alan Johnson said there was a “glaring” mistake in one of the episodes of the thriller. Johnson, who served as home secretary from June 2009 to May 2010, told ITV’s This Morning: “David Budd is in the restaurant with somebody else while the home secretary is having dinner and there are the two coppers plonked down at a table not eating or drinking anything.
“That wouldn’t happen because big signals are going off, ‘we are bodyguards’. What they do is blend in with the background and when you go for a meal they always come with you but they are there looking like two other diners so of course they have to order food.”
Bodyguard has massively outperformed ITV’s update of Vanity Fair, which was aired in the same 9pm Sunday night time slot. There was success elsewhere for the BBC – Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday night attracted an average audience of 8.9 million, well ahead of ITV’s X Factor.
Direct comparisons to hit shows such as Netflix’s The Crown are difficult, since streaming services do not release data on viewing figures. It was announced last week that Bodyguard will be shown on Netflix outside the UK, with the streaming service having quietly signed up the rights to the show before production began.
