A fifth of British Netflix viewers watch shows at work, new data shows.

A study by the streaming service found that nearly half of respondents (46%) watch programmes such as The Crown, Stranger Things and Orange Is The New Black in public.

Londoners are the most likely to catch up on their favourite shows while in the workplace (39%), followed by West Midlanders (24%) and Scots (23%), while the Northern Irish are more restrained, with just 10% watching at work, research found.

The study found Netflix users also use their commuting time to catch up on their favourite shows, with 26% of train travellers and 16% of bus passengers using the journey to dive into a series.

However, some 12% of Londoners said they have felt self-conscious about what they are watching in public, compared with 16% of respondents in the West Midlands and just 5% in Wales – and some 11% have switched off a risque show out of embarrassment.

Six out of 10 members considered scenes featuring drug use to be the most inappropriate, followed by torture (53%) and sex (51%).

For the study, Toluna surveyed 4,344 respondents across the UK over three days and two hours and Netflix analysed the answers.