Soap ‘battle’ concern

A Conservative MP has written to the producers of soap operas Coronation street and eastenders to ask them to stop using outdated “custody battle” language in family breakdown plotlines.

siobhan Baillie, right, has said she is concerned about how arrangements for children are portrayed as a “war to be won” in tv dramas.

she highlights a plot in eastenders, where Phil Mitchell had a so-called “custody battle” over his son raymond, and another in Coronation street involving Fiz stape and tyrone Dobbs. the MP for stroud and a former family law solicitor said society, the media and courts needed to move away from adversarial language. speaking in Parliament, she said: “i am often found shouting at the telly when they get the terminology wrong. “Language really matters in family law.”