Comedy Awards pull in 5 million for ITV

ITV1's coverage of The British Comedy Awards managed a respectable 5 million viewers at 9pm, giving ITV the biggest share of the peaktime audience.

The awards show, notorious for its unpredictability, featured an enormous python stealing the stage for over five minutes on ITV, as presenter Jonathan Ross and I'm a Celebrity winner Matt Willis, who was presenting an award, grappled with the heavy animal, which looked like it might escape into the audience.

Viewing figures were slightly down on the previous year's show, which managed 5.6 million and a 25.8% share.

The continued anarchy and surprises did well for ITV2, as extended coverage of the awards and the after show party gave the channel 543,000 viewers and a 4.71% audience share at 10.30pm.

At the same time, Channel 4 documentary The Secret Millionaire managed 3.4 million and a 15.4% share, having grown its audience over three weeks from 2.2 million.

BBC One's A Child Against All Odds got 2.6 million viewers, BBC Two's Torchwood pulled in 2.2 million, and Five's evening film Enemy of the State managed 1.9 million at 9pm.

Nigella's Christmas Kitchen continued to seduce viewers on BBC Two, with 3.3 million tuning in at 8pm, just pipping ITV1's wildlife programme Extinct which managed 3.1 million in the same slot.