Ramsay's 'F Word' not as hot as last year

Rex Features

The first of a new series of Gordon Ramsay's The F Word drew a decent audience on Tuesday, but was 800,000 down on the opening episode of the previous series.

The cooking show - returning for an extended run of 12 episodes - attracted 2.5m, or 10.7% of the total audience, at 9pm. Last year Ramsay's first instalment was watched by 3.3m (13.9%).

BBC One led the slot with Waking the Dead on 6.1m (26.5%), while 4m (17.5%) watched the second part of The Duke: a Portrait of Prince Philip on ITV1.

Five fell not far behind The F Word, attracting 2m (8.7%) for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

On BBC Two at 9pm, Abortion: The Choice mustered 942,000 (4%).