Dracula episode 3 loses to ITV's Bancroft in ratings battle

An average of 2.7 million watched episode three The Dark Compass on Friday night (3rd January), while ITV's crime drama Bancroft won the ratings battle with an audience of 2.9m.

Dracula launched with 3.6m on New Year's Day, the series losing almost a million viewers across its three-day broadcast.

Judging by Twitter, the final episode also appeared to draw a mostly negative response from viewers, many of whom didn't respond well to a twist which saw the show relocate Claes Bang's Count to the modern day.

It is currently unclear if Dracula will return for a second series, with the first ending with the deaths of both Dracula and his nemesis Agatha Van Helsing (Dolly Wells).

However, series co-creator Mark Gatiss has hinted that a continuation is possible, telling RadioTimes.com, “It’s very hard to kill a vampire. What they do is resurrect.”

Fellow Dracula creator Steven Moffat is expected to be kept busy with work ongoing on his new HBO drama The Time Traveller’s Wife and BBC series Inside Man.

All three episodes of Dracula are now available to watch on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Netflix internationally.