1.6m viewers desert Little Britain

Little Britain has lost more than a sixth of its audience in a week.

A still-impressive audience of 7.9 million tuned into the second episode of the third series on BBC One on Thursday night.

But the figure is well down on the record 9.5 million viewers who saw the opening episode.

The first week’s audience was boosted by scheduling the show an episode of EastEnders and a heavy promotional campaign, including Tom Baker’s voiceovers on the evening schedules.

The week, 32 per cent of everyone watching TV between 9pm and 9.30pm were seeing the show.

But it wasn’t enough to beat ITV1’s Doc Martin, which attracted 8.7 millions, or 36 per cent of the audience.

The return of Little Britain was greeted with a  cool reaction from critics, many of whom suggested it had substituted gross-out humour for wit.

Published: 26 Nov 2005