Monday 20th November 2017
Murder On The Blackpool Express has proved a ratings smash-hit for the third largest commercial broadcaster, UKTV, having become the highest ever rating show on its Gold channel.
The highly-anticipated UKTV Original comedy drama, starring Johnny Vegas and Sian Gibson has drawn in 1.72 million viewers in its first week. Following a BAFTA screening, the show premiered on Gold at 9.30pm on Saturday 11th November.
The story follows Terry (Johnny Vegas), a Blackpool coach driver, and tour guide Gemma (Sian Gibson) who become caught up in a deadly conspiracy when the trip's passengers start mysteriously dying one by one.
Murder On The Blackpool Express is written by Jason Cook (Hebburn), directed by Simon Delaney (Cold Feet, Stella, Lead Balloon), produced by Jim Poyser (Shameless) and executive produced by Andy Brereton for Shiny Button, an Endemol Shine UK company. It was ordered by UKTV's Genre General Manager for Comedy & Entertainment Steve North and UKTV Director of Commissioning Richard Watsham, while Hilary Rosen and Pete Thornton are co-executive producers for UKTV.
Gold has enjoyed continued success with UKTV Originals this year with We Have Been Watching, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' award-winning sitcom Henry IX, a pair of exclusive retrospectives, David Jason: My Life on Screen, The Story of Only Fools and Horses, and most recently, The Rebel with legend of stage and screen, Simon Callow.
And viewers have even more UKTV Original shows to look forward to with Smashie's Xmastastic Playlist airing on the channel next month, and dinnerladies diaries coming next year.
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For more information, please contact:
Ali Laurie, Network Communications Executive, UKTV
Notes to Editors
About Gold
Sky 110, Virgin 126, BT and TalkTalk 408 On demand on Sky, Virgin and Now TV.
About UKTV
UKTV is a commercial broadcaster reaching over 40m viewers every month.
The award-winning independent has eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, W, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food. These include the two most popular non-PSB channels in the UK and account for nearly 10% of the British commercial TV market.
The network delivers inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat, Amazon Fire and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories.
Now celebrating over 20 years at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) - is proud to be the first British television broadcaster in The Sunday Times top 100 companies list.