Mr Sex's new soap saves lives

BBC soap-opera pioneer Matthew Robinson is wrestling with what he describes as his most comprehensive challenge yet - setting up a media campaign to persuade Cambodians to stop calling a condom a "hygienic bag". The profoundly unsexy term in the Khmer language presents a big barrier to tackling the country's HIV/Aids problem, which is now the worst in south-east Asia.

Robinson, former executive producer of EastEnders and Byker Grove and head of drama for BBC Wales, is creating a soap promoting a new name for the condom - "Mr Help", which in Khmer sounds like "Mr Sex". If the plan succeeds it could help prevent many of the country's annual 20,000 Aids deaths. His simmering hospital drama, Taste Of Life, will save even more lives if it educates Cambodia's poor that washing hands after defecating helps prevent diarrhoea. One-in-three children in the country die before the age of five from preventable diseases.

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