The "bin-gate" scandal which erupted around BBC1 hit The Great British Bake Off led to the show's biggest ever audience, new figures show.

The controversial episode - in which contestant Iain Watters dumped his "showstopper" baked Alaska dish to cause an unlikely national kerfuffle - drew 10.25 million viewers, now catch-up viewers have added on.

It means the programme has become one of the BBC's highest-viewed programmes of the year. Only World Cup screenings, New Year fireworks, Sherlock and Call The Midwife have scored more than 10 million viewers for the "consolidated" figures, which bring together live and catch-up viewing.

The previous high for Bake Off was the 2013 final which had a consolidated score of 9.4 million with the programme shown on BBC2, prior to the move to a new channel for this series.

Watters' culinary catastrophe came after fellow contestant Diana Beard took his dish out of the freezer prompting many viewers to call for him to be reinstated. She subsequently pulled out of the show due to ill health.

The programme's judge Mary Berry was signing copies of her new book, Mary Berry Cooks The Perfect, at department store Selfridges in London today.