Vicious and The Job Lot are early hits

ITV’s new comedy line-up more than held its own in the ratings last night.

The broadcaster returned to half-hour sitcom with Vicious, starring Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi and an elderly gay couple, which attracted an impressive 5.87 million viewers over the half-hour.

That is more than 700,000 viewers above the average for that 9pm Monday slot.

It was followed by The Job Lot, a sitcom set in a job centre and starring Sarah Hadland and Russell Tovey.

It attracted a smaller average of 4.73million viewers – but that still represented one in five of the entire TV audience at the time and is in line with ITV’s average for the slot.

Meanwhile, the Dave Allen documentary God's Own Comedian was watched by an average of 2.73million viewers on BBC Two.

• Read our reviews of Vicious and The Job Lot.

Published: 30 Apr 2013