Slow start for new Matt Lucas comedy

BBC Two's new comedy series Kröd Mändoon And The Flaming Sword Of Fire got off to a slow start last night, according to early viewing figures.

The show, which stars Matt Lucas and Sean Maguire, opened to 1.8m (8.4%) during the 9pm hour and was beaten by BBC One's Traffic Cops, which pulled in 4.79m (22.4%).

A new two-part ITV1 drama, May Contain Nuts, managed 2.91m (13.6%), Channel 4's Two Foot Tall Teen averaged 1.45m (6.8%), and 2.51m (11.7%) tuned in for The Mentalist on Five.

Earlier, at 8pm, the second episode of Celebrity Masterchef had 3.94m (19.3%) for BBC One, up more than 600k on Wednesday's opener.

Springwatch attracted 3.17m (15.6%) to BBC Two, 1.52m (7.5%) watched the new episode of Channel 4's The Home Show, and The Bill pulled in 4.29m (21.1%) for ITV1.

Five was last for the hour with a repeat of Paul Merton In India, which put in 485k (2.4%).

Channel 4's 10pm Big Brother update averaged 1.89m (10.9%).

Overall, BBC One came top during primetime with an average share of 23.9% to ITV1's 17%. BBC Two was third with 9.1%, followed by Channel 4 with 7.3% (+1: 0.9%) and Five's 5.7%.

Elsewhere, Katie & Peter: Stateside performed well for ITV2, drawing 1.01m (5.2%) at 9pm, with a further 182k (1.1%) tuning in on timeshift. Also on the channel, the first episode of America's Got Talent delivered 771k (4.2%) at 8pm, and 521k (3.2%) tuned in for the second visit at 10pm.

E4's 9pm screening of a new My Name Is Earl episode grabbed 293k (1.5%), then 257k (1.3%) watched the season finale of The Big Bang Theory at 9.30pm.

Ratings data supplied by Attentional