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Thursday, December 24, 1998 Published at 13:46 GMT

Entertainment

Final bets for Christmas favourite

The well-known address is streets ahead

Forget the carefully wrapped parcels or the sumptuous Christmas fare, what the bookies are interested in this Christmas, is which channel your television is tuned to.

Bookmaker William Hill has Coronation Street as favourite to be the most popular television show on Christmas day.

The ITV soap is 4-9 favourite compared with its nearest rival, BBC One's Men Behaving Badly at 4-1.

EastEnders is given odds of 6-1 to be the top-rating show.

William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe says the race is especially interesting this year because because Coronation Street has never been the programme with the highest ratings at Christmas.

"But I think this time it is benefiting from the time at which it is broadcast. EastEnders is being shown twice on the day, but only Coronation Street is being shown at its normal time on its usual day,"Mr Sharpe said.

Common theme

Three of the soaps to screen on Christmas Day share a particularly topical theme.

Emmerdale, Coronation Street and EastEnders all include births in their episodes.

In Coronation Street, Judy Mallett gives birth to twins. EastEnders features Bianca giving birth and Emmerdale has a real Christmas surprise with Lisa Dingle having a child even though she did not know she was pregnant.