Over five million watch Phelan terrorise prisoner Andy in Coronation Street

Over five million Coronation Street fans watched dramatic scenes between Pat Phelan (played by Connor McIntyre) and his prisoner Andy Carver (played by Oliver Farnworth) in Sunday night’s hour-long instalment on ITV

An impressive 5.1 million viewers were hooked by Phelan's latest evil escapades in the soap. ITV enjoyed a good overall evening in the ratings as The X Factor followed up a 13-year ratings low on Saturday night with a slight rise in its audience on Sunday.

The ITV talent contest attracted 6.5 million viewers for its first Sunday show of the new series, a small increase on the equivalent figure for last year (6.3 million) and the same figure as 2015. In contrast, the first Sunday night show in 2014 had overnight ratings of 8.2 million, and in 2013 the number was 9.9 million.

This year is the fifth time The X Factor has launched with a pair of shows on the same weekend. Typically the Sunday edition has had lower overnight ratings than the Saturday show – but this year the audience for Sunday (6.5 million) was higher than that for Saturday (6 million). Saturday’s ratings were the lowest for an X Factor launch since the show’s very first year on screen in 2004.

This year’s figures are likely to rise when the official ratings are published next week, which will include viewers who recorded the shows and watched up to seven days afterwards on catch-up.

But the Beeb did hit back with the last instalment of Strike (The Cuckoo’s Calling), which starred Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger, attracting 5.3 million viewers.

The finale was up against the second episode of the returning series of ITV’s lavish period drama Victoria, which was watched by 4.3 million people.

This figure is an increase on last week’s opening episode of the Jenna Coleman-fronted drama, which drew an average of 3.9 million viewers.