The final part of the current series of BBC1's hit drama series Spooks ended strongly with 6m viewers (25% share) at 9pm, making it the most watched episode in the current run.

The 60-minute episode, marking the end of the seventh series, managed to hit a peak of 6.2m (26.6%) in the final quarter of an hour.

The episode cleared the channel's slot average for the year so far of 5.8m (24.5%) and comfortably won the competitive 9pm slot.

Over the eight editions of the MI5 drama, the series has averaged a steady 5.6m (23.3%) in its regular Monday night slot.

The show proved to be a sizeable hit amongst upmarket viewers with just over 55% of the audience coming from the ABC1 demographic. Younger viewers though weren't so impressed as viewers aged between 16 and 34 accounted for 15.2% of those watching the BBC1 show.

Spooks will return for an eighth series late next year, with filming due to start in March.

A new investigation for ITV1's Taggart, in the hour-long Homesick story, was a little further down the field at 9pm but still had something to smile about with 4.9m (20.5%). The cop drama was above the channel's slot average by 200,000.

Gadget Show/ Ascent of Money

Five's Christmas edition of The Gadget Show was on form at 8pm with a steady 1.4m (5.8%) tuning in for an hour. The hour-long programme comfortably had the advantage over Channel 4 at the time as The Ascent of Money, at the same time, had 1m (4%) and the show picked up another 100,000 on C4+1 an hour later.

BBC2 had a clear advantage over its nearest rivals at 8pm. First up with 3.3m (13.2%) was University Challenge for half an hour which was followed by Indian Food Made Easy with 2m (8.3%).

Behind Closed Doors

BBC2's audience slipped somewhat at 9pm with the penultimate edition of WWII: Behind Closed Doors on 1.3m (5.4%). C4's Catastrophe, at the same time, managed 1.6m (6.6%), up by 100,000 on last week. The documentary then gained another 200,000 an hour later on C4+1.

Five's second part of its historical Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n' Roll: the 60s Revealed interested 1.1m (4.5%), effectively the same sized audience as last week.

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