Soapy economics

The National Audit Office's report on the cost of the BBC's soaps is enjoyably mechanical, and will clearly terrify the luvvies, who like to judge their performances by the size of spreads in The Sun and OK, rather than by hard stats.

The report looks at Casualty, Doctors, Eastenders, Holby City, River City and Pobol y Cwm.  What joy to be able to calculate that Casualty and Pobol spend the lowest percentages of the six on story and script.  And that Casualty spends most on travel and subsistence - are there no actors in Bristol ?

And then there's value for money. Those made in England all come in at less than 10p per viewer hour. River City, made in Dumbarton, costs just under 50p per viewer hour.  Pobol y Cwm costs just over £2 per viewer hour.  Drop three or four episodes a year and you could buy the viewer a dvd.