Oscar Pistorius Murder Charge Documentary Wins U.K. Ratings

9:56 AM PDT 3/12/2013 by Stuart Kemp

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The South African double amputee, known as the "Blade Runner," is the subject of a BBC 3 doc weeks after being booked for killing his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp.

LONDON -- A documentary about South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius, currently on bail after being charged with killing his girlfriend, hit the spot with U.K. viewers.

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The one-off look at the double amputee known as the "Blade Runner" who competed at both the Olympics and Paralympics, a first for any athlete, scored a 4.3 percent share of the audience between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Monday.

The show came within weeks of Pistorius being charged with killing model and reality show star Reeva Steenkamp after a shooting at his home in Pretoria, South Africa.

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Commissioned by BBC 3 for the public broadcaster's channel, the documentary Oscar Pistorius – What Really Happened? secured a peaktime win over commercial broadcaster Channel 5's offering in the same slot.

The documentary attracted 1.08 million viewers, ahead of the 999,000 TV watchers who tuned in for reality TV show Robson's Extreme Fishing Challenge, with Robson Green.

The film itself has been condemned in certain media quarters as being too rushed as well as misleading amid uncertainty over what really happened that night.