£1 million insurance bill for Britain’s TV soaps

A new study reveals that Britain's favourite soaps have racked up over £1 million of damage in the last three years, with Coronation Street the most claim-prone with a whopping £315,620 bill - ten times more than an average street in Manchester.

As Corrie fans brace themselves for the tram disaster that will devastate the Street on its 50th anniversary, esure home insurance analysed every incident, injury, potential claim and damage to property that has taken place on the four top British soaps since the start of 2008.  During this time, Coronation Street recorded £315,620 worth of damage, followed by EastEnders (£297,949), Emmerdale (£225,980) and then Hollyoaks (£200,510).  The totals were nearly twelve and a half times more than would be expected from average real-life streets in these area. 

According to the findings, explosions were the leading cause of soap damage (£311,000) followed by fires (£208,420) and car crashes (£173,550).  The most expensive single incident was the siege, fire and explosion in Weatherfield's Underworld knicker factory in July 2010, which caused an estimated £150,000 worth of damage.

Eastenders had the highest crime rate with £70,145 worth of criminal damage.  Almost a third of this (£21,310) resulted from 29 separate acts of vandalism.  However, Hollyoaks had the highest number of robberies with 32 acts of theft and five muggings.

Coronation Street's David Platt is television's biggest insurance nightmare: in one storyline he left a £10,000 personal trail of destruction in a single day in 2008 when he vandalised windows and vehicles with a metal pole.

For Eastenders, esure calculated that a similar sized square in The East End of London would be estimated to record less than 10 claims in a three year period with an insurance bill of £21,600.  The residents of Albert Square by contrast suffered 102 incidents at a cost of £297,949.  A typical street in Manchester will make just over 16 claims with an insurance bill of £35,700 - almost a tenth of the amount clocked up on Coronation Street during this period.

Nikki Sellers, Head of home insurance at esure, comments: "The storylines that we see on TV soaps add up to a fortune in damage to cars, property and individuals.  We may find them unbelievable but real life incidents are often not that far from fictional storylines - the exception being the extraordinary number of major explosions and incidents of willful ‘trashing' by enraged characters.  Clearly there are some soap residents that no insurer would consider touching because of the trail of damage they have left in their wake.

"We're on the edge of our seats ahead of Corrie's dramatic tram crash disaster - and only hope the fictional characters have the ample building and home contents insurance they may need to cover any damage costs!"

For more information, visit esure.com.