The series premiere of Kidnap and Ransom opened with more than 4.3 million viewers last night, according to overnight data.
The ITV1 Kimberley Nixon drama averaged 4.33m (18.2%) in the 9pm hour to convincingly beat BBC One's Inside Men (3.55m/14.9%). An additional 341k (1.9%) caught Kidnap and Ransom on timeshift.
Earlier for BBC One, The Great British Countryside picked up 3.07m (12.6%).
Channel 5 had a particularly strong night thanks to Europa League football with Manchester United attracting 3.35m (14.2%).
In contrast, BBC Two's Raymond Blanc: The Very Hungry Frenchman and This World could only muster 1.2m (4.9%) and 753k (3.2%) respectively.
On Channel 4, Location, Location, Location grabbed 1.49m (6.1%) from 8pm (+1: 484k/2%) and Dispatches took 1.02m (4.3%) from 9pm (+1: 157k/0.9%).
ITV1 won primetime overall in convincing fashion with 21.2% (+1: 0.7%) ahead of BBC One's 18.1%. Channel 5 rocketed up to 11.1%, beating Channel 4's 4.8% (+1: 1%) and BBC Two's 4.3%.
On the multichannels, Celebrity Juice dominated for ITV2 with 1.61m (8.6%). The show also drew an additional 233k on +1.
