The first of the three new seasonal episodes of The Worst Week of My Life did not perform very well in the audience ratings last night.

The opening episode of "The Worst Christmas of My Life", in which Howard managed to 'kill' his father-in-law, opened with just 3.8 million viewers (16.3% audience share) at 9:30pm.

This figure is no doubt a blow to the BBC who will now be desperately hoping Thursday's and Friday's editions perform better as they have also been scheduled in a prime-time slots. The news may be somewhat of a surprise as the comedy received favourable reviews in this morning's press (a selection below).

"You might argue that this isn't the subtlest comedy on TV. You might also be right. Nonetheless, it's surely among the funniest." James Walton, The Daily Telegraph

"Christmas offers all the ingredients for ludicrous farce in the best-run lives, and these were duly served up in The Worst Christmas of My Life." Valerie Grove, The Times

"The Worst Christmas of My Life, a farce that runs on three nights, makes the seasonal assumption that you've had a couple and are easily pleased. In the cold light of morning, words seem tumbled together into the same sentence wholly at random: 'Remind me who it was who relieved themselves over my wife's goose!'. On the night, though, it really is quite all right." Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian