THE second series of Killing Eve has been the biggest show of the year so far on BBC iPlayer.

The Golden Globe-nominated spy thriller, starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, notched up 40.4 million requests on the streaming platform.

The cat-and-mouse tale, based on the Codename Villanelle novellas by Luke Jennings and developed for TV by Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, was way ahead of the competition.

It was about 13 million requests ahead of Jed Mercurio's Line Of Duty, whose fifth series saw 27.4 million requests.

Peaky Blinders' fifth series was the third biggest show of the year with 26.6 million requests.

Strictly Come Dancing's 17th series, which was won on Saturday by soap star Kelvin Fletcher and professional partner Oti Mabuse, came fourth with 23.9 million requests.

Waller-Bridge found further success with series one of Killing Eve, which secured fifth place with 22.3 million requests this year.

And series two of Fleabag was sixth with 20.3 million - iPlayer's biggest comedy of the year.

The second series of Killing Eve also dominated the list of the top 10 episodes of the year so far, with seven episodes featuring in total.

November also marked the biggest month for iPlayer, with a total of 439 million requests.

The BBC's adaptation of Sir Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and Sir David Attenborough's latest work, Seven Worlds, One Planet, were the month's biggest programmes.

The biggest iPlayer shows in 2019:

  • Killing Eve
  • Line of Duty
  • Peaky Blinders
  • Strictly Come Dancing
  • Fleabag

BBC director of content Charlotte Moore said: "It's been a huge year for BBC iPlayer - as well as record-breaking figures, it's become an entertainment destination in its own right; and, with approval for new programmes to be available for a minimum of 12 months, this will deliver real value for licence fee-payers.

"In 2020 we will go even further to make it the best watch ever from binge-worthy series to the biggest live TV moments."