Sexiest soap siren revealed

EastEnders' Mel Owen (Tamzin Outhwiate) and Brookside's Beth Jordache (Anna Friel) have been voted the sexiest soap actresses ever.

11:52 13 July 2004

EastEnders' Mel Owen (Tamzin Outhwiate) and Brookside's Beth Jordache (Anna Friel) have been voted the sexiest soap actresses ever.

The pair tied at the top of a poll of 5,000 soap addicts conducted by the Radio Times.

Albert Square has provided the top five sexiest soap males, with Beppe di Marco (Michael Greco) in first place and Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman) second.

But looks do not count for everything, as Coronation Street's Hilda Ogden, famous for her curlers and headscarf, was voted the greatest soap character of all time. She was also voted the character soap fans want to return to their screens second most, with Curly Watts third.

But the character viewers would most like to see return is EastEnders' Grant Mitchell - with Albert Square's Dirty Den the character who viewers want gone for good.

Den was also voted the character who most thought should not have been brought back - tied with Corrie's Bet Lynch.

Corrie was deemed the most realistic soap, followed by EastEnders and then Emmerdale.

However, 60 per cent of soap viewers believe too many hours a week are given over to the serials. And 45 per cent think watching soaps is "a waste of time".

The sexiest female soap characters were:

1 - Beth Jordache, Brookside
=1 - Mel Owen, EastEnders
3 - Tiffany Mitchell, EastEnders
4 - Elsie Tanner, Coronation Street
5 - Zoe Slater, EastEnders
6 - Karen McDonald, Coronation Street


The sexiest men of all time were:

1 - Beppe di Marco, EastEnders
2 - Dennis Rickman, EastEnders
3 - Steve Owen, EastEnders
4 - Simon Wicks, EastEnders
5 - Alfie Moon, EastEnders
6 - Barry Grant, Brookside