No Bex appeal

BBC1 comedies flop

BBC1's new Friday-night comedy line-up has taken a battering in the ratings.

The biggest disappointment was According to Bex, the singleton sitcom starring Spaced's Jessica Stevenson and created by My Family guru Fred Barron.

The Bridget Jones-style sitcom attracted just 2.8 million viewers in its 9pm slot this weekend – a mere 13 per cent audience share.

It means the show has lost two million viewers since it launched three weeks ago.

Even the 100-year-old archive footage in BBC2’s The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon fared better, with 3.1 million viewers.

Bob Mortimer’s panel game 29 Minutes of Fame also took a hit, with just 2.6 million viewers between 9.30pm and 10pm.

And Dom Joly’s World Shut Your Mouth also struggled, with 2.2 million viewers – down nearly 40 per cent in the three weeks since it debut.

Although a virtual carbon copy of his Channel 4 hit Trigger Happy TV, it failed to capture the public imagination, and contines his disappointing transfer to the BBC following the axing of his spoof BBC3 chat show.

Published: 31 Jan 2005

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