Coming up… Sex Education on C4
Too busy to post, really, what with my oldest turning six today and me supposedly organising a kids’ party for tomorrow. But have been meaning to say that the DVDs I was waiting for yesterday finally arrived. (The poor eastern European courier was on the road for about six hours in total, just so I could watch a couple of programmes for a feature which has now been held over for another week by the Guardian. So dear old Channel 4 could just have posted the DVDs. Hey ho.)
The programmes in question are the first two episodes of The Sex Education Show which starts on C4 on Tuesday (9 Sept). It’s very good, but very explicit - and the thing is, it will be on at 8pm when C4 is usually showing lifestyle or property shows. For an idea of how radical this is, think of Embarrassing Bodies, the series C4 ran in April at 9pm, which encouraged people - in glorious technicolour - to check their breasts, testicles, wallet and watch.
Sue Murphy, C4’s head of features programming, says she hopes families will watch The Sex Education Show. I don’t advise they do, unless the kids are about 14 plus and even then I expect both kids and parents will cringe fantastically when faced with a full-screen shot of a syphillitic vagina.
But this show is really important. One in ten people in the UK has chlamydia; we have the highest teenage pregnancy rate in western Europe; and the show’s coverage of how teenage boys use online porn in episode two is a depressing reality check on why sexual equality may be stalling in the workplace and Britain in general.
Good on C4 for commissioning and scheduling such a show, before the watershed. The Daily Mail will give them some flack but, as Murphy says, if just one teenager has protected as opposed to unprotected sex as a result of watching the series C4 will have achieved something.
September 6th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I’m very glad you recognise the educative value of the show. You may like to check out the online dimension of the project at http://www.channel4.com/sexperienceuk which is designed to enable people to learn from the real experiences of others.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:37 pm
[...] across Channel 4 at 9pm this week is a second series of The Sex Education Show which first appeared last year. But this time presenter Anna Richardson is comparing and contrasting the reality of various [...]