THE BBC seem to have had a bit of a bad hare day when it comes to its Watership Down remake.

A hefty 700,000 viewers switched off the big budget reboot as it made its debut on Saturday night — complaining about the “horrific” animation.

It started with an audience of 4million but, by the end of the show, the figure had plummeted to just 3.3million.

Fans branded it “an insult to the original” and claimed the iconic characters looked more like hares than rabbits.

A show insider said: “Producers had hoped Watership Down would be one of the BBC’s standout programmes over the festive season, but it really hasn’t lived up to expectations.

“The fan reaction has been really negative and the general consensus is that too much money was blown on the cast rather than the graphics.

“It’s a huge disappointment especially given the quality of stars they got on-board including John Boyega, James McAvoy and Olivia Colman.

“And, on top of this, to get jon a little more than three million viewers for a show that cost around £20million is an embarrassment to say the least.”

The tale of a tribe of rabbits searching for a new home and facing deadly dangers was made into a film that terrified the nation’s children in 1978.

However, the BBC remake was based on Richard Adams’ 1972 novel and had fewer blood-soaked rabbits ripping each other’s throats out. But droves of viewers took to social media to criticise the BBC.

Mark Smith blasted: “Thought I’d give the BBC remake of Watership Down a chance . . . sadly it’s truly awful and an insult to the original. The animation is worse than an old computer game, the rabbits look like some sort of hare/kangaroo hybrid.”

Emma Gibson said: “The only thing worse about the depressing storyline is the horrific animation.”

Duncan Bowtell added: “When you spend £20million on a film and your animator doesn’t know the difference between a hare and a rabbit.”

The two-part animation concluded last night. If only the show had been killed-off like some of the rabbits.