Sky to screen Lost finale as it airs in the US

Lost fans in the UK will see the show's finale at the same time as their US counterparts, Sky has announced.

The sixth and final series comes to an end with a two-hour special on Sunday night in the US.

UK viewers will see it at 0500 BST on Monday, the same time as audiences on America's west coast, with a repeat on Tuesday night.

Lost's first episode, screened in the UK in August 2005, is still the most expensive TV pilot ever made.

Initially shown in the UK on Channel 4, it attracted around six million viewers. But it had already started losing viewers by the second series, shedding half its audience.

Series six, on Sky One, has stayed steady around the one million viewers mark.

The show follows the lives of plane crash survivors stranded on a mysterious tropical island.

Executive producers and writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse announced in 2007 that the series would come to an end in 2010, giving them three years to tie up all the loose ends and answer as many questions as possible.

The final series has seen a "flash-sideways" concept, portraying two parallel universes.

In one, the survivors remained on the island but the other shows a world where Oceanic flight 815 landed in Los Angeles and the passengers never ended up living together.

Simultaneous screenings of the double episode will also be held in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Turkey and Canada.