Ben Stiller starred in the first episode with Gervais

Extras, which stars Gervais as a frustrated bit-part actor, launched on BBC Two last Thursday night.

Its ratings were slightly higher than the first episode of series two of The Office, which pulled in 4.2m viewers.

The episode featured a guest appearance from actor Ben Stiller, playing himself. Other stars set to appear in the series include Kate Winslet.

A second series of the show is already planned, with famous names including Jude Law, Steven Spielberg and Bruce Springsteen tipped to appear.

Gervais has admitted that making the show was a "logistical nightmare", due to the busy schedules of many of the guest stars he approached.

"It's bad enough trying to get everything co-ordinated with new actors," he said.

"But when you've got people for one day who might be in the middle of a film on the other side of the world, it's amazing we pulled it off."

Viewing figures for the programme were unavailable until Monday, due to a technical hitch.