Sky1's Pratchett adaptation performs well

Sky1's latest Terry Pratchett adaptation was the most-watched multichannel programme on Sunday night, early viewing figures indicate.

Going Postal, starring David Suchet, pulled in 879k (5%) for its first instalment between 6pm and 8pm, ahead of BBC Two and Five's offerings. It's the channel's third series of Pratchett adaptations, following Hogfather and Colour of Magic.

On the main networks, Lewis's final story of the year logged 6.08m (27.6%) for ITV1 from 8pm. Despite suffering a steady decline in numbers over its four-week run, series four has averaged an impressive 6.69m (28.1%), marginally superior to last year's 6.34m (26.2%).

BBC One's offerings of Countryfile and The Big Personality Test could only manage 3.65m (16.8%) and 2.74m (12.3%) at 8pm and 9pm. Prior to that however, Halcyon River Diaries interested 3.72m (20.2%), beating the final Seasons with Alan Titchmarsh, which delivered only 2.43m (13.2%) to ITV1.

Elsewhere, 1.64m (7.4%) chose BBC Two's African Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby at 9pm, outshining new series Genius of Britain, which attracted just 0.84m (3.8%) for Channel 4. Meanwhile, Five's screening of Spider-Man lured 1.12m (5.2%) between 8pm and 10.30pm.

Overall, ITV1 led primetime with an average share of 19.7% against BBC One's 16.6%. BBC Two followed with 7.5%, while Channel 4 and Five took 6.1% (+1: 0.9%) and 4.6% respectively.

Outside of primetime, ITV1's coverage of England's friendly against Japan averaged 3.17m (25.8%) from 1pm, peaking with 4.63m (35.7%). However, it lost out to the Formula One: Turkish Grand Prix on BBC One, which had 3.37m (29.2%) from the earlier time of 12.10pm.

Among the most-watched multichannel shows, 24 brought in 439k (2%) for Sky1, and a new episode of Famiy Guy notched up 840k (4.9%) from 10.20pm.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional