New data shows requests were up by 23 per cent on this time last year, reaching 274 million in April. Four-part comedy series Peter Kay’s Car Share was the month’s most popular programme, with all four episodes in the top five rankings and all episodes achieving over 2m requests each.

The new series of Line of Duty saw five of its six episodes in the top ten ranking, while there were more than one million requests for the Doctor’s first episode back, The Pilot. EastEnders also saw a very strong performance in April, with ten episodes appearing in the top 20.

Top 10 best-performing episodes

Top 10 best-performing episodes per series

The BBC recently announced that viewers will need to register for a BBC account and log in to watch programmes on BBC iPlayer. To register for an account go to: https://account.bbc.com/register/

Dan McGolpin, controller of programming and daytime, said: “BBC iPlayer is up 23 per cent compared to April last year and it’s easy to see why with the fantastic range of series available such as Peter Kay’s Car Share and the gripping Line Of Duty. The experience for viewers just gets better and better so that now when you sign-in you will benefit from personal recommendations and the ability to change device and seamlessly pick-up a programme where you left it.”