Tennant's 'Hamlet' seen by 896,000

David Tennant's performance of Hamlet failed to draw a significant audience on Saturday (December 26), early figures suggest.

The televised version of the stage play, which also starred Patrick Stewart, averaged 896k (4.5%) for BBC Two over a lengthy three hours from 5.05pm.

Victorian Farm Christmas followed on the channel with 1.14m (5.1%), then the audience leaped to an impressive 3.11m (14.1%) for a rerun of The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show.

BBC One averaged 6.06m (27.3%) between 7.30pm and 10pm for a screening of movie sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

EastEnders was the most-watched programme of the day on any channel, averaging 8.13m (37.9%) between 7pm and 7.30pm.

Ant & Dec's Christmas Special averaged a healthy 6.78m (30.8%) between 7.30pm and 8.45pm, then All Star Family Fortunes followed with 5.8m (25.8%). The audience then dropped to 3.05m (14.2%) for comedy pilot The All Star Impressions Show with Stephen Mulhern.

Five dedicated the night to reruns of classic CSI episodes again, peaking with 896k (4.7%) for its 10pm screening.

Channel 4 managed 1.32m (6%) for its showing of movie classic Crocodile Dundee, then at 9pm, documentary Decoded: Dan Brown's Lost Symbol interested 1.38m (6.1%).

Overall, BBC One averaged 27.9% in primetime to ITV1's 22.2%. BBC Two was third with 7.7%, followed by Channel 4 with 6.2% (+1: 0.6%) and Five with 3.4%.

BBC Three documentary spinoff EastEnders: The Sins Of Archie Mitchell performed well for BBC Three, with 551k (2.6%) tuning in at 7.30pm, then 455k (4.1%) watching a repeat at 11.20pm. A repeat of the earlier EastEnders episode garnered 672k (4.4%) for the channel at 10.50pm.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional