Robbie Williams has scored the biggest-selling album of the year, just five weeks after it went on sale.

His album Escapology was released in time for the lucrative Christmas market, and gives him his third consecutive festive number one.

Sales figures show Escapology has sold more than one million copies in the UK since going on sale on 18 November.

The release is the first since he signed a mammoth record deal with EMI, estimated to be worth �80m.

The first single from the album, Feel, peaked at number three in the UK charts, after being beaten to the top by Eminem and the Cheeky Girls.

Williams experimented with the big band sound in 2001

But the album has stayed at the top of the charts since it was released and is the fastest-selling of his career.

It has so far sold 4.4 million copies around the world and has yet to be released in America and Japan.

Williams, 28, has previously had Christmas number ones with Sing When You're Winning and his big band offering Swing When You're Winning.

In 2001 he secured both the album and single top spot after teaming up with Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman for a cover of Somethin' Stupid.

Williams' career has gone from strength to strength since he quit Take That in 1995.

In August 2003 he will embark on a series of massive concerts at Knebworth where he will be seen by more than 350,000 people.

And such was the demand for tickets for two shows, selling out within hours, that he added an extra date to as not to disappoint fans.

Williams will also visit Murrayfield in Edinburgh and Phoenix Park in Dublin as part of a 15-date European tour which will see him perform to about one million fans in total.