Bodyguard was BBC iPlayer’s biggest show of the year in 2018

BritFlix Buzz, Reviews, TV

Thrilling drama Bodyguard is BBC iPlayer’s biggest show of the year so far. The first episode has smashed records to reach 10.5 million requests – making it the most popular episode ever on BBC iPlayer.

Every episode of the tense Golden Globe-nominated drama – which stars Richard Madden as personal protection officer to Keeley Hawes’ home secretary – made it into BBC iPlayer’s top ten episodes of the year, receiving 41.3 million requests and becoming BBC iPlayer’s biggest box set ever.

The other big success story of the year is Killing Eve, the genre-busting spy thriller from Phoebe Waller-Bridge, starring Sandra Oh, who’s up for best actress for the series at the upcoming Golden Globes, and Jodie Comer in a star-making turn as assassin Villanelle. The first episode of the series is the second-best performing BBC iPlayer episode ever, with 8.9 million requests, and the series overall has 40.7 million requests – the second biggest box set iPlayer has ever seen.

The two shows make up every episode of the top ten episodes of the year so far:

But it’s not just about Bodyguard and Killing Eve. McMafia was also very popular with audiences, getting 4.5 million requests for its first episode, and sleeper hit Welsh mystery Keeping Faith had 3.9 million requests for its first episode.

Also popular was Jodie Whittaker’s first outing as the Doctor in the returning series of Doctor Who, with 3.6 million requests, as well as the first episode of the new series of Our Girl and Jenna Coleman drama The Cry, each of which got 3.4 million requests. England’s World Cup quarter final against Sweden was the most popular live episode of the year, with 3.2 million requests – 2.8 million of which were live.