9:37pm UK, Monday July 12, 2004

Brookside's Beth Jordache and EastEnders' Mel Owen have been voted the sexiest soap characters ever.          

Jordache, played by Anna Friel, set pulses racing with soapland's first ever lesbian kiss.

Tamzin Outhwaite

Owen, played by Tamzin Outhwaite, was also a big winner in the love stakes, not least with second husband Steve Owen (Martin Kemp).               

Sexiest man of all time was EastEnders' Beppe di Marco (Michael Greco), just beating current heart-throb Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman).               

Coronation Street's Hilda Ogden was voted the greatest soap character of all time.               

The curler-wearing battle-axe, played by Jean Alexander, lived with husband Stan in a house decorated with her famous flying ducks.               

She was a fixture in the street from 1964 until 1987, when she left Weatherfield for a new life in the country.               

EastEnders' Grant Mitchell is the character viewers would most like to see make a comeback and Dirty Den is the top choice to be banished back into soap oblivion.         

The Radio Times quizzed 5,000 viewers about their soap favourites.

Second in the greatest soap character list was Ena Sharples, who bowed out of the show in 1980.The sexiest female soap characters:               

  • Beth Jordache (Brookside) 12%               
  • Mel Owen (EastEnders) 12%               
  • Tiffany Mitchell (EastEnders) 8%               
  • Elsie Tanner (Coronation Street) 7%               
  • Zoe Slater (EastEnders) 6%               
  • Karen McDonald (Coronation Street) 5%

The sexiest men of all time:               

  • Beppe di Marco (EastEnders) 11%               
  • Dennis Rickman (EastEnders) 10%               
  • Steve Owen (EastEnders) 8%               
  • Simon Wicks (EastEnders) 7%               
  • Alfie Moon (EastEnders) 6%               
  • Barry Grant (Brookside) 5%               
  • Ciaran McCarthy (Coronation Street) 4%