Decent ratings for BBC Two 'scomedy

The first episode of Psychoville pulled in a solid 1.4million viewers to BBC Two last night.

The figure – representing seven per cent of the total TV audience at 10pm – was on a par with the station’s average audience for that slot.

But it was beaten by Big Brother, which drew 1.9 million viewers to Channel 4 at the same time. In an interview with Chortle this week, Steve Pemberton – who co-created Psychoville with his League of Gentlemen colleague Reece Shearsmith, had joked: ‘I’m hoping people will watch it and not Big Brother, that other set of freaks.’

The audience was, however, the best of all three comedies in BBC Two’s Thursday night line-up.

Kröd Mändoon And The Flaming Sword Of Fire managed to lose a third of its audience from its debut last week. Just 1.2million viewers tuned in to see the Matt Lucas and Sean Maguire fantasy spoof at 9pm– down from 1.8million from the hour-long opening episode.

The third series of That Mitchell and Webb Look put in a similar performance at 9.30pm, pulling a mediocre 1.1million.

Published: 19 Jun 2009