Despite reports that the Top Gear team is currently resembling the Labour shadow cabinet - with threats of resignations and unhappiness - there is finally some good new for the new-look show: ratings for this week's episode were up on the previous week.
Overnight figures show that Episode 5 was watched by 2.68m viewers - a 300,000 increase on Episode 4, which attracted just 2.34m - the smallest audience for the show since its Clarkson-led reboot in 2002.
Naturally, people are already trying to explain away the increase as being a result of viewers having tuned in to watch the coverage of the Glastonbury mid-afternoon 'legends' slot, which this year was filled by Jeff Lynne's ELO, and deciding to simply watch the next programme on the same channel.
2.4m tuned in to watch ELO, in contrast to last week's preceding show, a repeat of Dara and Ed’s Great Big Adventure, which brought in only 925,000 viewers. Critics can also point to the fact that this number is still down hugely on the 4.3m who tuned in live for the launch episode.
Nonetheless, Chris Evans and BBC bosses will doubtless be hugely relieved to finally be welcoming some positive news.
However, it may be as good as it gets, as next Sunday's show - the sixth and final in this series - may be moved to an earlier slot if England beat Iceland tonight, lining up a Sunday evening quarter-final against France.
Don't be surprised to see Chris Evans in a pub somewhere tonight cheering on the Iceland boys...
(Image: Rex)
