Now that one mystery on here has been solved about the shortness of seasons (or series), I have another question. Are there TV ratings similar to our Nielsens? Can we go back and research ratings histories of some of our favorite British shows?

Greetings from way down under in New Zealand.

Yes there are tv ratings in the UK. The BBC conducted the first broadcasting research in 1936 and began their ‘Audience Research Department’ in 1938. When the ITV channels began in 1955 a number of companies were briefly used including ‘Gallup’, ‘Pulse’ (for the London and the Midlands regions only) and American company, ‘A.C Nielsen’ was briefly used by Granada. The ‘Television Audience Measurement’ (TAM) was used by ITV from 1956. The ‘Audits of Great Britain’ (AGB) was established in 1967, they were a breakaway company from the TAM. The ‘Broadcasting Audience Research Bureau’ (BARB) have been used by all channels since 1981. The BBC still compile their own figures, which are very similar to BARB’s. This has not always been the case as the BBC’s figures would often differ greatly from that of the AGB’s.

There has been number of different ways in recording the audience of a programme. Up to the 1st August 1977, the TAM and the AGB recorded the millions of homes watching a programme, while the BBC always recorded the number of people. To convert the number of homes into people, a method of multiplying the homes by 2.2 has been used.

The first broadcast to reach 20 million or more viewers in the UK was the Coronation of the Queen in 1953. The top 5 biggest audiences in the UK that I could find, are listed below. Remember that different sources come up with different figures. They include two royal events and three football (soccer)matches, which leads to another problem arising, in what to count. If a football match or a royal event was broadcast on more than one channel, do you count the channel with the bigger audience or the combined figure? In this case, the latter has been used. Also to remember if you are comparing the figures to US television audiences, is that the population of the UK is far less that of the US.

All Time UK Top 5 TV Audiences?

1. Royal Wedding - Charles & Diana (1981) - 39 million
2. World Cup - Brazil v England (1970) - 32.5m
3.= World Cup Final - England v West Germany (1966) - 32m
3.= FA Cup Final Replay - Chelsea v Leeds United (1970) - 32m
5. Funeral of Princess Diana (1997) - 31m

With regards to comedy, the comedy programmes that have attracted over 19 million viewers (that I could find) are listed below. Only the highest audience figure for each programme is included.

The top comedy programmes:-

The Morecambe and Wise Show (1977) - 28m BBC1 sketch/standup
Only Fools and Horses (1996) - 24.35m BBC1 situation comedy
To the Manor Born (1979) - 23.95m BBC1 situation comedy
Are You Being Served? (1979) - 22.6m BBC1 situation comedy
Mike Yarwood In Persons (1979) - 22.4m BBC1 sketch/standup
Sykes (1979) - 22.4m BBC1 situation comedy
Last of the Summer Wine (1979) - 21.9m BBC1 situation comedy
Citizen Smith (1979) - 21.8m BBC1 situation comedy
The Benny Hill Show (1971) - 21.78m Thames sketch/standup
George and Mildred (1977) - 21.56m Thames situation comedy
Steptoe and Son (1964) - 21.36m BBC1 situation comedy
Love Thy Neighbour (1974) - 21.12m Thames situation comedy
Rings On Their Fingers (1979) - 21.1m BBC1 situation comedy
Mrs Thursday (1966) - 21.01m ATV comedy drama
Bread (1988) - 21m BBC1 situation comedy
Oh No - It’s Selwyn Froggitt (1977) - 20.9m Yorkshire situation comedy
Just Good Friends (1986) - 20.8m BBC1 situation comedy
Secombe and Friends (1966) - 20.79m ATV sketch/standup
The Cuckoo Waltz (1977) - 20.68m Granada situation comedy
Doctor on the Go (1977) - 20.68m LWT situation comedy
The Muppet Show (1978) - 20.6m ATV sketch/standup
Miss Jones and Son (1977) - 20.46m Thames situation comedy
Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em (1979) - 20.4m BBC1 situation comedy
Man About the House (1976) - 20.24m Thames situation comedy
Robin’s Nest (1977) - 20.24m Thames situation comedy
Howerd’s Hour (1968) - 20.02m ABC sketch/standup
One Foot in the Grave (1993) - 20m BBC1 situation comedy
Bless This House (1974) - 19.8m Thames situation comedy
Des O’Connor Entertains (1974) - 19.8m ATV sketch/standup
Dad’s Army (1975) - 19.58m BBC1 situation comedy
Birds of A Feather (1993) - 19.4m BBC1 situation comedy
Mr Bean (1992) - 19.3m Thames situation comedy
The Darling Buds of May (1992) - 19.1m Yorkshire comedy drama

I hope this helps answer your question.

Now that one mystery on here has been solved about the shortness of seasons (or series), I have another question. Are there TV ratings similar to our Nielsens? Can we go back and research ratings histories of some of our favorite British shows?

Do the UK ratings have their own web site?

I loved looking at the ratings every week.

The Benny Hill Show (1971) - 21.78m Thames sketch/standup
Sounds like that figure was from the March 24, 1971 show. Under that "homes viewed" system used by JICTAR (the Joint Industrial Committee for Television Advertising Research) at the time, the figure for that show was 9.83m homes. I remember reading an ad put out by Thames trumpeting Benny's success of the time claiming that this show was seen by 20m viewers. That was probably the figure reached by BBC audience research.

Just for the record . . . what was the highest-ever audience figure (homes viewed or viewers watched) for a Monty Python's Flying Circus episode on original airing? I reckon it was about half of what Mr. Hill (and the other comedy shows) attained at one time or another. Certainly from my research, not a single Python episode ever made the Top 20 on any of the weeks it aired originally. My estimate would be about 10m viewers (or less than 5m homes), likely from their third (1972-73) series.

The Benny Hill Show figure was from the 24th March 1971. There were two different figures I found for this show, one was 9.9 million homes (the one I used), the other was 9.83 million homes. As I said in my previous post, the accepted method of converting homes into people is by multiplying the homes by 2.2.

As for Monty Python's Flying Circus, according to the Monty Python Encyclopedia, the first screenings of all the series, the figures hardly got above two million (people).

However, the film, Monty’s Phyton’s Life of Brian, released in 1979, became the top UK film at the box office in Britain in 1980.

As for Monty Python's Flying Circus, according to the Monty Python Encyclopedia, the first screenings of all the series, the figures hardly got above two million (people).

However, the film, Monty’s Phyton’s Life of Brian, released in 1979, became the top UK film at the box office in Britain in 1980.
Hmmm. I'll have to go back to my research from 1990 during my visits to IBA/ITC offices in London (across from Harrod's, I.I.N.M.) in which I gleaned Python ratings vs. what Mr. Hill attained to see what's what (and what I uncovered is pretty primitive as their old JICTAR ratings books didn't have overall figures for BBC programs week-by-week). But thanks anyway.

As for BBC audience research's highest TBHS figure . . . it was 21 million viewers from one of his shows c.1975. Again, I'll have to go back to see what's what.

I've gotten back. Apparently Robert Ross was confusing homes viewed with people watching. In his Merry Master of Mirth book on Benny Hill, he claimed Eddie in August was seen by 4.5 million viewers. The actual figure was 4.5 million homes - which if multiplied by 2.2 would translate into 9.9 million viewers, give or take.

Thanks for that.