There was something of an outcry not so long ago when proposals were announced to relax the rules on product placement on television. It will be the end of sensible plot lines, critics alleged, with gratuitous references to commercial products cropping up all over the place. Well, whatever happens when the new rules come in, it can’t possibly result in dialogue more leaden than this. Obiter was amused to learn that Coronation Street recently gave a plug for, of all things, the Law Society – not that any cash changed hands, of course. Apparently, Chancery Lane was mentioned in a recent episode concerning a custody dispute. Character Leanne Battersby, a former lap dancer and drug addict, is searching online for a family solicitor to help with her partner Peter Barlow’s case. In a rare piece of script writing, Battersby apparently says quite naturally, as one would: ‘It says here we need a family solicitor and they must be accredited by the Law Society.’ Later, when Barlow mentions a solicitor he found, Battersby asks ‘if they are accredited’. High drama indeed. But what next? Will readers change channel to witness Stacey Slater saying: ‘What d’yer mean I’m over the legal aid threshold and ‘ave got to pay for me own defence for murderin’ our Archie?’