Midsomer Murders returns on Wednesday night with 4.9 million

Midsomer Murders​ returned once again to top the ratings outside soaps on Wednesday night, and was slightly higher than last year's opener.



The ITV crime drama with more deaths per square mile than any other village in the world attracted an average overnight audience of 4.95 million (21.5%) at 9pm (414,000/2.1% on +1). This is around 200k higher than last January's premiere.

On BBC One, Dickensian​ continued with 2.66m (11.6%) at 8.30pm, followed by Sir David Attenborough's Great Barrier Reef​ with 3.20m (14.1%) at 9pm.

Channel 4's Secret Shopper​ with Mary Portas opened with 1.30m (5.6%) at 8pm (201k/0.9%), while 24 Hours in A&E​ appealed to 1.77m (7.8%) at 9pm (323k/2.0%). Katie Piper's Bodyshockers​ returned with 854k (5.3%) at 10pm (139k/1.6%).

On Channel 5, Celebrity Big Brother​ dipped to 2.00m (8.8%) at 9pm (186k/1.1%).