Curse of Comedy lifts BBC4 to record high

BBC4's new Curse of Comedy drama season started very strongly last night. The Curse of Steptoe attracted an impressive 1.4 million viewers - a new record for the niche digital channel. The audience was a massive eight times higher than the channel's average.

The 65-minute one-off drama, which starred Jason Isaacs as Harry H Corbett and Phil Davis as Wilfrid Brambell, managed to hold a largely stable audience throughout its broadcast, but peaked at 1.5m (a 7.4% audience share).

Many viewers continued with the channel after the drama finished. 813,000 stayed on to watch the first ever episode of Steptoe and Son which followed.

It seems comedy is becoming a ratings winner for BBC Four. In August last year another comedy-related broadcast, Blackadder Back and Forth, attracted 794,000 viewers to the station.

The Curse of Steptoe is repeated on BBC Four this Friday and Sunday. It is also available to watch on BBC iPlayer, alongside an interview with writers Galton and Simpson.

The Curse of Comedy season continues next week with Hancock and Joan - a dramatisation of the final years of Tony Hancock's life. It stars Ken Stott as the comedian, with Maxine Peake as Joan Le Mesurier.

The season also features a drama about Hughie Green, and the highly anticipated Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me. This last drama, which stars David Walliams as the troubled comedian, could well set another audience record for the channel on the 9th April.

To find out more about the Curse of Comedy season visit www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/curseofcomedy