It’s a weird old world. Next time the ten’o’clock news ends, trawl through the channels, having turned down the volume because films screened late at night tend to include ‘discouragin’ words’ – to quote “Home On The Range”.
You needn’t get repetitive thumb strain searching for something truly bizarre.
Depending on what day of the week it is, you may be unlucky enough to land on a programme that is so ‘out there’ that, when I first saw it, I thought for a moment that my satellite aerial had picked up a rogue signal from one of those raunchy Italian channels that the late, great Clive James used to mock so brilliantly in his clip show.
The programme I’m referring to is “Naked Attraction”, made by Channel Four.
Basically it’s “Blind Date” without a wardrobe budget.
A group of naked girls stand in a line while a man decides which one he would like to take out. Then a girl inspects a line of naked men and decides which one she wants a date with.
Do you think the boys mentally dress the girls and vice versa?
After many years of reading my ramblings you know I’m no prude.
But, folks, I was shocked! Not by the show itself, which, having watched once I never need to see again.
No, what shocked me was, when I searched online to see how many viewers had complained about the show, there were, no pun intended, barely any.
Yet, I recently read that the main TV broadcasters have ‘cancelled’ Benny Hill and refused to repeat the comedian’s shows – which used to attract 18 million viewers – as they are deemed ‘sexist’.
Well, what’s more ‘sexist’ than a man eyeing up a line of naked women and choosing one to go out with?
The girls in Benny’s shows ran around in their undies . . . and he gets cancelled years after his death, while a UK channel screens a show featuring people parading around starkers* and no one cares.
It really is a weird old world.
*What happens when they go to work the next day?