Top Gear’s final two episodes featuring Jeremy Clarkson prove a hit on iPlayer

The final two episodes of Top Gear to air with the presenting trio of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond proved to be the most popular programmes viewed on the BBC’s iPlayer last month.

The BBC’s decision to suspend, and subsequently drop, Clarkson following his fracas with Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon has made the latest series of the BBC2 motoring show something of a must-watch on the catch-up TV service.

Episodes six and seven of the latest series, the last episodes completed of the 10-part series before Clarkson was suspended, attracted more than 3.6m streams or downloads on the iPlayer last month.

Episode six drew 2.17m viewing requests while Episode seven managed 1.48m.

The BBC “postponed” the last three episodes of the current series because filming could not be completed without Clarkson, and said earlier this week that it will attempt to air the unaired footage, potentially as an edited special.

The figures highlight the huge popularity of Top Gear and the difficulty the BBC will have in re-inventing the show without Clarkson and May, the latter saying he would not return to the motoring show without Clarkson.

Hammond is tipped to follow his co-presenters to pastures new, but he has not officially confirmed that he will not work on Top Gear again.

In February, four episodes of Top Gear made the top five most watched shows on the iPlayer and drove the BBC’s catch-up service to a record month for requests for TV programmes.

In March, the top five were rounded out by two episodes of BBC1’s The Voice, which attracted 1.22m and 1.14m views, and the first episode of hit period drama Poldark which drew 1.19m viewing requests.

Overall there were 255m TV and radio programmes streamed or downloaded in March, well down on February’s 299m, despite fewer days in the month.

The BBC said that “measurement issues in March meant we were unable to capture a large volume of TV requests”.

The BBC says it estimates it is missing about 6m TV show requests from its March figures. During March, weekly requests averaged 57m.

Top five BBC iPlayer TV shows in March

1. Top Gear series 22, episode 6 – 2.17m requests
2. Top Gear series 22, episode 7 – 1.48m
3. The Voice series 4, battles 1, episode 8 – 1.22m
4. Poldark, episode 1 – 1.19m
5. The Voice series 4, battles 2, episode 9 – 1.14m