TV audiences for the Bafta Film Awards hit a four-year low last night.

BBC1’s two-hour broadcast drew 4.6m viewers, accounting for 22.1% of the total audience in the UK, according to overnight Barb data supplied by Attentional.

This was down more than 800,000 viewers on 2013, which drew 5.4m - the ceremony’s biggest audience since 2004.

There is a correlation between the popularity of the British nominees and viewing figures.

Last year’s high coincided with James Bond hit Skyfall winning Outstanding British Film. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy won the prize in 2012 and box office smash The King’s Speech took the award home in 2011, drawing an overnight TV audience of 5.2m. However, when Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank took the top honour in 2010, the ceremony recorded a low of 3.6m

Last night’s ceremony, where Gravity won Outstanding British Film, was beaten during the first hour of its broadcast by ITV period drama Mr Selfridge, starring Jeremy Piven, which drew 4.8m

The BAFTAs peaked with 5.2m (26.9%) in the five minutes from 10:15pm. Last year’s ceremony peaked with 6.2m.

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