2.4m tune in for 'Charlotte Church Show'

The first episode in a new series of The Charlotte Church Show attracted the programme's largest ever audience last night.

The show, featuring appearances from Catherine Tate and Lee Mack, was watched by 2.4m (13.1%) over 45 minutes from 10pm.

Fuelled by a lead-in from Big Brother, the figure is an improvement on 2.2m (11.1%) for the last series opener and Church's previous audience high of 2.3m (11.9%) in March last year.

The preceding reality show catch-up attracted an impressive 3.5m (16.5%) in the 9pm hour, putting it behind only BBC One, where fraud documentary On The Fiddle? drew 5.1m (24.2%).

ITV1 aired a health service 60th anniversary special, Life And Death On The NHS, which was watched by 2.4m (11.4%) in the 9pm hour.

BBC Two drew a decent 2.6m (12.4%) with the return of satirical quiz Mock The Week between 9pm and 9.30pm, then interested a less impressive 1.7m (7.9%) for new sitcom Lab Rats until 10pm.

On Five between 9pm and 10pm, 1.2m (5.8%) saw the first in a new series of The Hotel Inspector.