Martin Compston has taken to Twitter to celebrate Line of Duty's incredible ratings - as the finale has now been named the most-watched episode of the 21st century - while also jokily expressing his confusion that the runner-up show in the ratings was a 2000 episode of Heartbeat.
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Sharing a screengrab of the ratings, which saw Line of Duty with 15.24million viewers while Heartbeat came in second place with 15.16million, he tweeted: "Being the biggest drama of the 21st century is amazing but like most folk I’m wondering what the bold Nick Berry was up to that week in Heartbeat."
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He continued: "Thanks again for the support never in our wildest dreams did we think the show would reach this many viewers."
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Fans were full of praise for the exciting news, with one replying: "I just spent the last two weeks watching from start to finish. It has become a personality trait & I’m not ashamed. It was bloody brilliant, well done!" Another added: "Even more amazing that you have achieved these figures when there are far more channels and multimedia platforms available than in 2000. Congratulations to you all."
Heartbeat came in second place in the most-watched shows of the 21st century
Other shows that made the top ten list included episodes of A Touch of Frost, Bodyguard, Inspector Morse, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Downton Abbey, Aug Wiedersehen, Pet and The Royal, all of which received over ten million viewers, incredible!
Jed Mercurio also spoke about the ratings, tweeting: "We're honoured and flattered by the viewing figures for #LineofDuty6. We knew attempting to explore the real nature of corruption in our society wouldn't appeal to everyone, but we do sincerely thank you all for watching. It's been our privilege to share your Sunday nights."
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