[Locke.]

A new series of Russell Brand's Ponderland began with an average of 980,000 (6.8%) for Channel 4 last night (Thursday).

Despite the publicity surrounding the comedian this week, the ratings remained level with the 962,000 (6.7%) who saw the first episode of the last series in October 2007.

An hour-long edition of EastEnders was the day's most-watched show, with a massive 9.16m (40.3%) for BBC One between 7.30pm and 8.30pm. The soap successfully dented the audience for ITV1's The Bill, which was down to 3.52m (14.8%) in the 8pm hour.

The second episode of new Dickens adaptation Little Dorrit drew 4.83m (20.1%) to BBC One at 8.30pm. The figure is down on the strong 6.32m (24.1%) audience for the series debut on Sunday.

At 9pm BBC One stayed in the lead with Silent Witness, which had 6.1m (27%). On ITV1, Real Crime: The Suffolk Strangler interested just 2.79m (12.3%).

BBC Two's Autumnwatch 2008 kept up the pace at 8pm with a sizeable 3.24m (13.6%). It beat Channel 4's River Cottage Autumn, which had 2.35m (9.9%), and Five repeat Ronnie Barker's Comedy Heroes, with 897,000 (3.8%).

At 9pm, Embarrassing Teen Illnesses drew 2.16m (9.6%) to Channel 4 and on BBC Two, Never Mind The Buzzcocks managed 2.37m (10.4%). Beautiful People followed with an improved 1.38m (6.1%). Five had 947,000 (4.2%) for the second episode of Danger Men.

BBC One dominated primetime with an average audience share of 28.4% (last week: 22.3%) to ITV1's dismal 15.3% (17.3%). BBC Two notched up a 9% share (8%), ahead of Channel 4's 7.7% (7.6%) and Five's 3.8% (8.8%).

Katie & Peter: The Next Chapter delivered a reliably strong 848,000 (4.3%) to ITV2 in the 9pm hour (+1: 150,000, 1%), while on Sky1, Bones notched up 520,000 (2.6%).

The penultimate episode of E4's Dead Set drew 676,000 (4%) at 10pm, with 209,000 (2.2%) watching on E4+1. EastEnders brought in 745,000 (4.8%) to BBC Three for the hour, and on ITV2, a screening of The World Is Not Enough kept 620,000 (5.8%) until 12.30am (+1: 114,000, 2%).

New US drama Life made a decent debut for ITV3, meanwhile. The premiere pulled in 221,000 (1.4%) at 10pm, then the ensuing second episode had 183,000 (2.1%).

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a1342...-draws-1m.html