'Dragons' Den' heats up BBC Two ratings

A new season of Dragons' Den made an impressive start in the ratings on BBC Two last night, recording one of the show's largest audiences to date.

The business-based reality show drew 3.4m (14.7%), up from 3.1m (12.6%) for the first instalment of the last run, in October 2007. Only three episodes have rated better - two on 3.5m last year and one on 3.8m in 2006.

Dragons' Den was ahead of ITV - if only by 51,000 viewers - between 9pm and 10pm as the commercial channel attracted 3.4m (14.5%) with Police, Camera, Action!.

BBC One led the slot by some distance with 8m (34.2%) watching the reliably successful New Tricks, while Channel 4 drew 1.5m (6.2%) for documentary Can't Read, Can't Write.

Banged Up, Five's prison-set series featuring David Blunkett, attracted just 782,000 (3.4%) from 9pm.

Over on multichannel, the fifth and final season of critically-acclaimed US drama The Wire began on FX at 10pm. Despite heavy media coverage, the show only interested 38,000 - down from 53,000 for its Family Guy lead-in.