Only 1.1million watched the first episode of The Crown's fifth series

The first episode of the new series of The Crown was watched by 1.1 million on the opening day of its release — about a seventh of the figure that watched I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!on on the same day.

While the series had been backed up with a huge marketing campaign and lots of publicity, the opening programme was still a long way short of the jungle-based reality show on ITV, which got about eight million viewers.

It was also a long way from of the 4.52 million that tuned into the 6.30pm regional news programme on BBC1 or the 4.47m that watched the News at Six on the same channel.

There has been huge controversy in the weeks leading up to the new series of The Crown over the way it has portrayed individuals and events.Dame recently said the show seemed ‘willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism’.

The viewing figures for the royal drama, which sees Imelda Staunton replace Olivia Colman in the role of the Queen, was also less than BBC1’s long-running daytime show Bargain Hunt, which got 1.4 million.

But The Crown did beat all of the shows in BBC2’s post-7pm schedule and also got a higher audience than Channel 4 shows including Grand Designs and Sue Perkins’ Big American Road Trip.

Netflix has recently joined the Barb audience measurement system which means that for the first time its overnight ratings are available alongside those of other TV services.

The Crown figures are based on the number of people streaming, while the I’m A Celebrity numbers are based on the traditional TV audience rating system.

The 1.1m for the first episode of the drama, which also stars Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Dominic West as Prince Charles, is much higher than the figures for the best rated show on the first day Netflix’s audience figures were made public.

On that occasion, D77toto The Watcher had attracted 120,918 ‘views’.

One unlikely outcome of the new series is that it has turned the former Prime Minister John Major into a sex symbol.

Viewers on social media admitted they found Jonny Lee Miller’s portrayal of the politician very alluring.

One wrote that ‘nothing could have prepared me for sexy John Major’ while another said: ‘The Crown has turned John Major into this sexy, moody, working class hero’.