Bradfordians have leapt to the defence of their district after it suffered a double whammy of "Bradford bashing" on TV in one evening.

Viewers were disheartened to watch two programmes back to back on Monday, which depicted Bradford as a capital of drugs and crime.

The reaction followed an episode of Yorkshire-based soap Emmerdale and a BBC expos on heroin, both aired at peak viewing time.

Tracy Rushworth, manager of haulage company ATR Transport in Little Horton, said she was horrified to come across the negative references to Bradford in Emmerdale and contacted its makers Yorkshire Television to complain.

She said: "I don't normally watch it, I was just flicking through the channels and saw a woman saying the reason her family was there (in Emmerdale's fictious village) was to escape Bradford and its violence and crime.

"This is a national soap. It came across as if every teenager from Bradford is going to be a smackhead or a shoplifter," said Mrs Rushworth.

"Drug dealing is rife up and down the country - why just mention 'Bradford'? Why can't they fabricate a name like Emmerdale?"

The controversial storyline involved the Daggert family, which has recently moved from Bradford to Emmerdale.

In Monday's episode, mum Cynthia said her son Danny could not have stayed in the city as he would not have survived.

In the episode she said: "It wasn't just crime like drugs, it was the violence. People accepted it as normal and I don't want him turning out like that."

She goes on to tell him she has sacrificed everything to give him a chance. "Do you really want to turn out like your old mate?" she asks.

The soap was followed by a half-hour BBC1 documentary called 4x4 at 7.30pm, which used undercover reporters to show how easy and cheap it was to buy heroin in Bradford.

Labour Group leader Ian Greenwood said: "I wouldn't want to minimise the effects of drugs in the community, but I don't know of any city in Britain which does not suffer from drug problems. To demonise such a district as Bradford is unfair to say the least. The majority of people in Bradford are appalled by drug abuse."

Bradford Council executive member for health and housing, Kris Hopkins, said people working to boost Bradford's image were tired of criticism.

"This is a great city, a great district and we work hard to promote investment, bring new jobs to the city and make sure we have a positive community. It makes a lot of people angry that there are constant jibes on drugs in a city which works extremely hard to address the problems that its got."

Councillor Elaine Byrom (Cons, Clayton) added that soaps were not a good example of life in a metropolitan area.She said: "They take everyday circumstances and make a drama out of it. Let's look at what happens normally, not fairy stories."

An Emmerdale spokesman today said the Daggerts were a fictitious family who moved to Emmerdale to escape their personal problems and not the area they previously lived in.

A BBC spokesman said: "The film in question (4X4) reported on the fact that there is now such a large amount of heroin in Britain that suppliers have had to find new markets for the drug.

"We chose Bradford to illustrate this point because it is widely acknowledged that the city has a serious heroin problem which did not develop until the mid nineties."