TELEVISION / Statistics

SOAPS, and their eternal obsession with life's 'issues', have been set in order in a new survey by Check It Out, the youth consumer magazine. The findings show that EastEnders and Brookside are the most issue-obsessed soaps, with the Australian imports trailing some way behind.

The survey is very simple: 16 possible issues have been pinpointed, and each soap receives a point for every issue it has covered. The issues pinpointed include parents splitting up, drug- taking, abortion, illiteracy and teenage pregnancy. Of the six soaps the survey covered, Brookside and EastEnders had each covered 12 of the 16 issues, Home and Away had covered six, Emmerdale had covered five, Coronation Street and Neighbours came joint last on four.

The survey reveals the most popular soap issue to be 'running away from home' - only Brookside hasn't had a series runaway - other favourite issues for soap script-writers are teenage marriage and mixed- race relationships.

According to Check It Out, only Brookside has had anyone fall in love with a priest, and only EastEnders has dealt with the issues of being HIV positive and dying from Aids.

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