In a multichannel, on-demand age, BBC One is still the channel the nation turns to for big events.

GBBO

Two-thirds of us watched some of its World Cup coverage, and its broadcast of the final was the top-rated show of 2014 with 15 million viewers.

But scratching at its heels came that most astonishing phenomenon: The Great British Bake-Off. The final of the Love Productions show consolidated to 13.5 million in a midweek 8pm slot – half of all viewers watching at the time. With just a few tweaks from its BBC Two incarnation, it was the hit of the year.

In 2014, BBC One was the only PSB channel to significantly grow its peaktime share – by 5%.

BBC1 rises to the challenge

In drama, it was straight out of the stalls, with the third series of Sherlock grabbing 11.8 million viewers on New Year’s Day and piling on another 4.5 million through catch-up and iPlayer. Call The Midwife went from strength to strength, Sally Wainwright struck gold twice with Last Tango In Halifax and Happy Valley, while singles Common, The Great Train Robbery and The 7.39 landed strongly.

BBC One is a channel with its big guns firing. EastEnders is back at the top of its game and The Graham Norton Show is firmly established as TV’s premier chat-show. The Christmas specials of Mrs Brown’s Boys delivered great comedy numbers, as did the nostalgic glow of Still Open All Hours.

It was quite a year.

Shortlisted

BBC Three
Despite the prospect of major budget cuts hanging over it, the BBC’s youth channel powered on with quality documentaries and dramas, from Murdered By My Boyfriend and In The Flesh to Life And Death Row. It ushered in bold new comedy flavours with Uncle and Bluestone 42, while The Revolution Will Be Televised continued to provoke.

Channel 4
Racking up both column inches and big audiences, divisive documentary series Benefits Street kicked off a great creative year for Channel 4, with Gogglebox’s Friday night move paying off in spades and Marvel: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. proving a canny acquisition. Barmy sitcom Toast Of London became a much-loved cult curio of the kind only C4 could make.

Dave
Panel show contestants continue to make affectionate jibes about their inevitable Dave repeats, but 2014 was a turning point for the UKTV channel. Star turns from Ross Noble, Dave Gorman and Alan Davies demonstrated Dave’s new swagger, while the runaway success of Storage Hunters gave birth to a strongly-performing UK adaptation.

E4
Channel 4’s younger sibling enjoyed impressive growth in 2014, up 18% in peak - a figure matched by the growth of 16-34 evening viewers. The Big Bang Theory remains the jewel in its crown, but newbies including The 100, The Tomorrow People and Brooklyn Nine- Nine all made a splash. Jack Thorne’s rural murder mystery Glue was a strikingly original creative highlight.

ITV
ITV bankers Britain’s Got Talent, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, The X Factor and Downton Abbey continued to deliver the goods and the channel was boosted by last January’s bumper 9.7 million audience for the return of Birds Of A Feather. Drama hits included Prey, The Widower, Grantchester and ratings smash Cilla.

Sky Atlantic
Sky’s premium channel put its money where its mouth was in 2014, launching Gothic drama Penny Dreadful to an overnight audience of 249,000, comfortably twice the slot average. Game Of Thrones remained the lynchpin of its schedule and dark US drama acquisition The Following had viewers hooked.

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