The controversial Top Gear special in Argentina was the most popular iPlayer show over the UK’s Christmas period. There were more than two million requests to view part one of the show, shot in Patagonia.

BBC figures showed a 25 per cent rise in demand for its iPlayer catch-up service, year on year. There were 227 million requests to view programmes in December and 54.5 million during the UK Christmas week, the highest one-week figure to date.

The second part of the Top Gear special was the third most popular festive show with 1.5 million requests. It attracted 7.8 million viewers in consolidated viewing figures, which include live and time-shifted audiences, but not those on the iPlayer. The second most-watched Christmas show on the iPlayer was EastEnders’ Christmas Day episode, with nearly 1.7 million requests.

Doctor Who, which has topped the festive iPlayer charts for the last two years, slipped to ninth with one million viewing requests.

The BBC drama also suffered a decline in the consolidated figures falling from 11.1 million viewers in 2013 to 8.28 million viewers this year.

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