Eddie Redmayne's 'Birdsong' closes with 5.3m on BBC One

BBC One miniseries Birdsong concluded with nearly 5.3m from 9pm, according to overnight data.

The First World War drama starring Eddie Redmayne hit 5.29m (21.4%) to help the channel to primetime victory, though it was slightly down from last week's figure of 6.03m (23.6%).

It was preceded by Countryfile, taking 6.77m (26%), and Call the Midwife, which continued very strongly with 8.76m (29.3%).

Dancing on Ice improved from last week for ITV1, attracting 7.55m (28%) from 6.45pm (+1: 205k/0.7%) and 5.88m (22.2%) for the skate-off (+1: 221k/1.3%).

Wild at Heart aired in between with 6.21m (22.1%) from 8.30pm (+1: 300k/1.3%) and That Sunday Show grabbed 2.41m (11.4%) from 10pm (+1: 193k/1.7%).

BBC Two's primetime lineup consisted of Sir Jimmy Saville at the BBC: How's About That Then? (952k/3.7%), Top Gear (4.33m/14.5%), Toughest Place to Be A... (2.53m/9.95%) and God Bless Ozzy Osbourne (1.35m/8.4%).

Channel 4's Hugh's Three Hungry Boys drew 837k (3.2%) from 7pm (+1: 142k/0.5%), with The Hotel taking 1.03m (3.5%) in the 8pm hour (+1: 227k/0.9%) before an airing of The Ghost was seen by 1.53m (7.4%) from 9pm (+1: 190k/1.5%).

World's Greatest Daredevils had 589k (2%) for Channel 5 from 8pm. 9pm's Bad Boys averaged 1.03m (4.9%).

Overall, BBC One's figure of 24.5% was enough to earn it a primetime victory over ITV1, which had 22.7% (+1: 0.9%). BBC Two took third place with 9.2% ahead of Channel 4 with 5% (+1: 0.7%) and Channel 5's 3.8%.

Elsewhere, The Only Way Is Essex was the most-watched multichannel show with 1.05m (5%) and 115k (1.1%) on ITV2 +1 for its fourth series opener, and Sky1's Got to Dance ended up with 940k (3.9%) from 6pm.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional