The figure -- around 31.5% of the national audience share -- is believed to have been just over half the audience share the broadcaster hoped for after an expensive pre-show promotional campaign costing around £1m, on top of the show's £9m production budget.
The show just beat the final episode of BBC1's Clocking Off which pulled in 5.9m viewers, or a 27.6% audience share.
BBC2's repeat of Harry Enfield netted 14% of the audience, or 2.5m viewers, just 500,000 more than Channel 4's Nuremburg and Channel 5's screening of the Paul Michael Glazier-directed film Running Man, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which each secured an audience share of around 10%.