The Queen’s Speech has topped the Christmas Day ratings battle, with nine million people tuning in to see the monarch’s address.

The majority, 7.4 million, watched the 10-minute highly personal speech at 3pm on BBC One, with a further 1.7 million people tuning in on ITV.

Meanwhile, the BBC had another hit with the festive edition of Strictly Come Dancing. It came out as the top show of the day, racking up an audience of 5.8 million. The figure was up on the five million who tuned in last year.

Third place went to Call The Midwife with 4.7 million viewers, while Michael McIntyre’s Christmas Wheel secured 4.6 million and was fourth, while Blankety Blank took fifth with 4.2 million.

BBC One secured eight of the top 10 programmes on Christmas Day – with ITV taking eighth and ninth place with episodes of Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

In 10th place, the festive EastEnders special had an audience of 2.9 million.

Mrs Brown’s Boys, a staple of the BBC’s Christmas schedule for a decade, failed to make the top 10 most watched shows.

ITV’s The Masked Singalong special also struggled with just 1.3 million viewers.

When it came to festive animations, BBC1 outperformed Channel 4.

The Julia Donaldson adaptation, Superworm, was watched by 3.3million. Meanwhile, Channel 4’s reworking of Terry Pratchett’s The Abominable Snow Baby could only muster 1.8 million.

In the kitchen Channel 4’s The Great Christmas Bake Off, featuring the It’s A Sin cast, took third spot over the 75-minutes from 8pm with 2.4 million viewers.

Channel 5’s best effort of the day was the 3pm showing of the classic film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which attracted 900,000 viewers.

On Christmas Eve’s evening offerings, ITV’s Bradley and Barney: Breaking Dad at Christmas was watched by 2.4 million; BBC1’s Top Gear: Driving Home for Christmas (2.4 million) and Channel 5’s All Creatures Great and Small (2.3 million).

Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s chief content officer, said that viewers “chose the BBC on Christmas Day”.

She said: “Nothing brings the country together at Christmas quite like the BBC, there was something for everyone with the seven most popular programmes across the day that caps off a brilliant year on the BBC, celebrating British creativity where we have delivered hits and award-winning work and seen huge audiences come to our shows.

“It’s these moments, in a time of intense competition, that prove that after 99 years the BBC matters more than ever.”

She added that the BBC’s centenary year in 2022 will be an “ambitious and exciting” one with “world-class content that will celebrate and reflect the unique role the BBC continues to play in the lives of audiences across the UK.”