Almost eight million viewers watched the finale of Life on Mars, hours before it was nominated for three Baftas.

The second series of the BBC1 show ended on Tuesday when it was the most watched programme, with 28% of the TV audience share.

An average of seven million people, peaking at 7.7 million, watched the last episode, compared with an average audience of 6.3 million for Manchester United's Champions League victory.

The finale of Life on Mars was broadcast the night before the British Academy for Film and Television Arts (Bafta) nominations were announced.

The show is up for best drama series and John Simm has received his first Bafta nomination for best actor as DCI Sam Tyler. The series has also been shortlisted for the Pioneer Audience Award, which recognises the best programme of 2006 and is the only prize voted for by the public.

The BBC has announced a sequel to the show, which will again star Philip Glenister as DCI Gene Hunt, but will be set in the 1980s.

The series has been a smash hit for the broadcaster and Simm's antics as the time-travelling cop have won millions of viewers. He was struggling to find out whether he was in a coma, mad or had travelled back in time and viewers watched as he realised he was in a coma, but then chose to return to 1973.

Co-creator Matthew Graham said he had always been "slightly surprised" that people thought there was a "genuine mystery" behind the story.

"To me, it was very obvious - he got hit by a car, the doctors and nurses were speaking to him over the radio and through the television and he was in a coma," he said.

But websites set up in tribute to the series have been inundated with reactions after the final episode and many have speculated about references to The Wizard of Oz.

Some fans have suggested the 1970s characters could be Sam's modern-day friends or colleagues.

Bookmakers William Hill have made Life on Mars 4/6 to win its three categories.

It has been nominated against Shameless, Sugar Rush and The Street for best drama.

It will compete with The Royle Family: Queen of Sheba, Dragons' Den, The Vicar of Dibley Christmas Special, Planet Earth and Celebrity Big Brother for the Pioneer Audience Award.

Simm is up against Jim Broadbent, Andy Serkis and Michael Sheen in best actor category.

Longford, the Channel 4 drama about the prison reformer's battle to release Myra Hindley from jail, won four nominations, the largest number this year.

The ceremony takes place in London on May 20.

Wizard clues

The Acting DCI from Hyde/Sam Tyler's surgeon was Frank Morgan, the name of the actor who played The Wizard of Oz.

DCI Gene Hunt often refers to Tyler as "Dorothy".

When Tyler woke from his coma in the final episode, a cover version of Over the Rainbow was played.

In the final episode, the team was seen driving away towards a rainbow, down a brick road, and a group of young (munchkin-like?) children appeared to close the series.