`EastEnders' tops the complaints ratings

`EastEnders' tops the complaints ratings

RHYS WILLIAMS

EastEnders provoked more complaints than any other television programme last year, according to research published by the Broadcasting Standards Council yesterday.

Releasing its annual survey of listeners' and viewers' concerns, the statutory body for monitoring standards of taste and decency in British broadcasting said that the BBC1 soap opera attracted 47 complaints, nearly half of which referred to the on-screen lesbian relationship between Della Alexander and Binne Roberts.

A further third related to violence, particularly at the climax of the storyline involving Grant Mitchell's aggressive lodger at the Queen Vic, Dougie.

Cracker, the gritty ITV drama series, featuring Robbie Coltrane as police psychologist Fitz, prompted 46 complaints - mostly about sex and violence - followed by Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation, with 38 complaints, and Billy Connolly's World Tour of Scotland.

The most complained-about television advertisements were for Tango, which parents felt were too frightening for children, and Neutralia shower gel, which showed a brief glimpse of a nipple.