COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Sherlock continued its Sunday ratings domination with its final episode of series three, overnight ratings reveal.



The BBC One drama concluded with 8.77 million viewers (32.1%) for 'His Last Vow' at 8.30pm, down slightly from last week's 8.84m.

Earlier, Celebrity Mastermind quizzed 4.59m (19.4%) at 7pm, followed by Antiques Roadshow with 6.17m (24.5%) at 7.30pm.

On BBC Two, Simon Reeves's Tea Trail interested 1.60m (5.9%) at 8.15pm, while Dan Snow's Operation Grand Canyon brought in 2.34m (9.0%) at 9.15pm.

ITV's Dancing on Ice shed nearly 400,000 viewers from last week's opener, attracting 5.86m (24.7%) at 6.15pm (286k/1.1% on +1). Its results show was seen by 5.32m (18.8%) at 8.30pm (168k/0.6%).

All-Star Family Fortunes entertained 5.02m (19.9%) at 7.45pm (171k/0.6%) at 7.45pm, while All New It'll Be Alright on the Night amused 3.62m (13.4%) at 9pm (226k/1.3%).

Channel 4's Speed with Guy Martin gathered 1.81m (6.7%) at 8pm (206k/0.8%), followed by action movie Fast Five with 1.74m (8.7%) at 9pm (242k/2.1%).

On Channel 5, My Super Ex-Girlfriend appealed to 1.03m (4.0%) at 7pm. Celebrity Big Brother continued with 2.05m (7.6%) at 9pm (260k/1.5%).

BBC Three's repeat of The Voice attracted 653k (2.6%) at 7pm.

Steven Moffat on Sherlock ratings: 'It's an international phenomenon'



Steven Moffat has described Sherlock as a "phenomenon" following last night's ratings success.

The BBC One drama's third series finale 'His Last Vow' pulled in overnight figures of 8.8m, with a 32.1% audience share.

"It isn't supposed to be like this," said Moffat - the show's co-creator - in a statement. "Sherlock began life as a surprise hit, and now in its third series, it's rating higher than ever."

The writer - who devised Sherlock alongside Mark Gatiss - admitted that he initially thought of the detective series as a "vanity project" when it launched in 2010.

"This show, which we all thought would be our vanity project destined for 3 million in the ratings and possibly an award from an obscure European festival, has become a barnstorming international phenomenon," he said.

"If I live to be a very old man, I might be able to explain how any of that happened - drop me a line in about 40 years, I'll do my best.

"Till then, on behalf of Mark and [producer] Sue [Vertue] and myself - who started all this, not so very long ago - thank you all for the very best of times!"

'His Last Vow' saw Sherlock seemingly exiled to Eastern Europe after killing villain Charles Augustus Magnussen (Lars Mikkelsen), only to be recalled to London to deal with an apparently resurrected Moriarty (Andrew Scott).

A fourth and fifth series of Sherlock are currently in the planning stages.