Hit sitcom The Inbetweeners ended on a record high last night, with nearly three million viewers tuning in to watch the four characters go on a camping trip.

A total of 2.96 million watched the sitcom on E4 and E4+1, setting a new record for the digital station. The ratings were more than eight times the average for the timeslot on the channel, drawing a 14% share of the total audience across all channels. According to the overnight figures, only the news managed to draw a higher audience, with The Inbetweeners helping E4 to beat terrestrial channels including BBC Two, which was showing Genius With Dave Gorman.

The third series of the youth-orientated comedy has consistently broken records, with an impressive average of 2.45 million watching the six-part series.

E4 are clearly keen to commission more episodes, but it remains unclear as to whether there will be another series. A feature length special, in which the lads go on their first holiday together without their parents, is currently being edited together, and a post-movie special has been planned, but there is uncertainty as to whether there will be a fourth series.

Although they haven't categorically ruled out doing another series, writers Damon Beesley and Iain Morris have previously said they're not sure going beyond the post-movie special as the next chapter would see the characters moving on to university or getting jobs, making it harder to find plots where the four are still together. Beesley said: "In our minds, we've always thought that this series, this (school) year, is obviously the closing of the story. They are going to disappear and go off to different universities. It's very unlikely Neil is going to go. We want to finish the stories off by picking up with the characters after their holiday."

Meanwhile, The Inbetweeners is set to be re-made abroad. MTV are to pilot the show with an American cast.