Report: Soaps should promote politics

A new report has called for political storylines and chat to be written into soaps in an attempt to promote civic engagement.

Professor Stephen Coleman, of Leeds University, and Phil Redmond, who created Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks, launched The Westminster Wing: The Depiction of Politicians and Politics in British Soaps.

They argue that featuring political campaigns and argument on television would motivate the public, giving the example of the rise in smear tests following Coronation Street's Alma Halliwell's death from cervical cancer.

The pair have also called for a relaxation in broadcasting rules which regulate party politics on television. Professor Coleman said: "There's something not quite right when pubs such as the Rover's Return or the Bull (in Radio 4's The Archers) are the only ones in country where Tony Blair is never mentioned.

"Soaps have modernised in pretty much every other way, but they cling to the old dinner party rule that it isn't right to talk about politics."

The professor added that he wanted "more engagement by the soaps in campaigns, tribunals, school governorships - all the essentials of democracy".