London's husbands are the laziest, survey finds

Forget what you've heard - the liberated male lives not in muesli-munching Hampstead but up north. Men in the South-east of the country do less cooking and housework than their counterparts elsewhere in Britain, a lifestyle survey compiled by the BBC has found.

Researchers for the corporation asked 6,000 people over the age of four to keep detailed diaries of their activities over a three-day period. They then asked a series of questions about their interests and activities to build up a comprehensive picture of life today.

The BBC uses the information from its surveys, which it has been running since 1930, to tailor its programmes to the changing habits and tastes of the population.

The latest results reveal that in the course of an "average" day across the country, 81 per cent of women do "some cooking", against 52 per cent of men. But those figures hide a large regional difference: only 43 per cent of men in the South- east do any cooking, compared with 63 per cent in Scotland, the North-east and the Midlands.

The figures for housework portray a similar picture of lazy southern men: of the married men in the survey, again, Londoners are the least likely to do any household chores: only 40 per cent of husbands in the South-east do any housework on a typical day, compared with 60 per cent in Scotland and the North-east.

Stuart Knapman, the audience insight manager at the BBC, said: "It could be that people in the South work longer hours. Levels of unemployment are lower in the South- east, which means that they are less likely to be at home for so long. Men there also get home later because of the traffic."

The BBC Daily Life Survey also reveals that soap operas are the most popular programmes - 38 per cent of respondents list them among their three favourite genres. Fifty-five years ago, the most popular programmes were "newsreels" (84 per cent) and "plays" (83 per cent).