Top Gear records best opening audience for three years as 6m viewers tune in for new series

BBC Two's hit show rivalled competition from Call the Midwife on Sunday

Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May in the first episoce of Top Gear's 21 series (BBC)

BBC Two motoring show Top Gear has hit new heights of popularity after recording a peak of 6 million viewers for the first episode of the new series last night.

The fast-paced car entertainment programme achieved its best opening audience for three years when an average of 5.3 million tuned in to watch Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May take to their motors once more in "Hot Hatches".

Last summer, overnight ratings for the opening show reached 4.7 million, while figures hit 5.1 million in January 2012.

Between 8pm and 9pm, Top Gear attracted 19.3 per cent of the television audience, despite appearing in the same slot as BBC One’s hugely successful Call the Midwife which averaged 8.89 million viewers and took 27.7 per cent of the audience.

The Top Gear team had another reason to celebrate on Sunday as the laddish show turned 21.

Top Gear turns 21: The things you never knew about the BBC show as it returns for a 21st series

Jeremy Clarkson getting wet and wild in the first episode of Top Gear's new series (BBC)

To kick off the 21st series, the three presenters attempted an ill-fated hill climb at speed in vintage vehicles, enacted some 1980s driving antics (roof-walking included) and wreaked havoc in a car chase at an army base.

It was all wild, fairly immature stuff, but Top Gear's executive producer did admit to Radio Times last week that the show is “aimed at people with a mental age of nine”.