Takeaway habits of typical British families are governed by the start of their favourite soaps, a survey has found.

Research carried out by online takeaway portal Just-Eat concluded that the average time for placing a fast food order is 6.50pm, just before an evening's soap viewing begins.

From the data set of 1,216 members of the general public, 62% claimed that they ate their takeaway while watching their favourite serial drama. Of that proportion, Northerners were the most likely candidates to govern their eating patterns by the television schedule.

CEO of Just-Eat David Buttress said: "Despite obviously being dinnertime or thereabouts, the fact that the order-time average was an odd 6.50pm sparked our researchers to question why this could have been, and we are both genuinely surprised with the outcome.

"The results of our customer research clearly show that families are much more likely to eat together whilst watching soaps rather than sit down together around a dining table, so I think it’s safe to assume a correlation of the two. Who would have thought it - EastEnders causes you to crave takeaway food!"

The survey also found that, on average, 23% of families eat takeaways around three times a week, while 6% eat takeout food on a daily basis.