...but it's down on last series

The return of Ricky Gervais's sitcom Extras attracted 3.5 million viewers to BBC Two on Thursday night.

However, figures were down on the 4.8 million who saw the first episode of series one, which eventually drew an average of 3.9 million during its run.

The figure represents 16 per cent of the total audience, well up on BBC Two’s 8.9 per cent drama.

Extras fared much better than the shows on C4 or Five, at 1.4million and 1.1million respectively, but was beaten by both BBC One's Aberfan: The Untold Story documentary and Bad Girls on ITV1, which attracted 4.1 million and 4.7 million viewers respectively.

Gervais has repeatedly claimed he is not chasing ratings, saying: ‘I said, I'd rather this be a million people's favourite show than 10 million people's 19th favourite show.’

The new episode of Extras featured guest appearances by Orlando Bloom and Keith Chegwin, as Gervais's character Andy Millman compromised his ideals to launch a BBC sitcom.

David Bowie and Sir Ian McKellen are to appear in forthcoming installments.

Also in BBC Two’s new comedy line-up, That Mitchell and Webb Look at 9.30pm attracted 2.4 million viewers while Mock the Week drew 1.7 million at 10pm.

Published: 16 Sep 2006