John Abraham reports on the Radio Times’ official viewing figures for the week of Jan 24th – when the first PIMPERNEL was shown.

It’s headline is “Pimpernel’s a hit with Radio Times”.

“BBC1’s new costume caper ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ may not have been a favourite with the critics, but its opening episode still managed a healthy 8.34 million viewers against tough competition from ‘Heartbeat’ (15.54 million)” (‘Heartbeat’ is virtually a British instituition, by the way!!)

PIMPERNEL 1 rated just outside the BBC Top 10, came 27th in the overall channels ratings chart, was voted 3rd favourite with Radio Times readers (UK’s best selling weekly magazine).

As for PIMPERNELs 2 and 3 which were shown over the following consecutive weeks, we’ll have to wait for those viewing figures. Personally, I thought they got better by the week, so I hope the ratings remained constant!

By the way, the video of the first film includes interviews with the cast and production team, and tapes 2 and 3 will follow shortly. Great news!