BBC: Viagra sex scene 'should never have been filmed'
Tuesday, August 18, 1998 Published at 13:02 GMT 14:02 UK
A couple are asked if Viagra improved their sexual experience
TV clean-up campaigner Mary Whitehouse has called on
the BBC to drop footage of a couple filmed having sex as
part of a documentary on the effects of the impotence
drug Viagra.
She said: "I really think someone has gone out of their
mind."
The footage, which was
recorded for BBC Two's
Modern Times series, shows
self-styled sex therapist
Tuppy Owens, 53, making
love with her partner hours
after he had taken the
anti-impotence pill.
They are then asked whether
the "wonder pill" has boosted
the experience.
Mrs Whitehouse has called
on BBC governors to stop the footage being screened.
"It is incredible stuff really," said Mrs Whitehouse. "They
should never have filmed it in the first place.
"They are using our money and the vast majority of
people would resent their licence fee being paid for
something like this."
'A legitimate subject'
A BBC spokeswoman said the programme makers had
not yet decided whether to include the footage in the
documentary to be shown in November.
She said: "It is clear that the introduction of Viagra into
the UK market will be one of the biggest stories of the
year and is a legitimate subject for programme makers."
She added that Ms Owens, the author of a number of
erotic books and leader of the Sexual Freedom Coalition,
suggested the sex scene herself.
The footage was shot using a fixed camera while the
crew sat in another room, and Miss Owens kept her
'nightwear' on throughout.
Sex therapy group
Miss Owens has hit the headlines for books such as
Take Me I'm Yours and The Sex Maniacs' Diary.
She founded the Outsiders' Club, a sex therapy group for
disabled people, and employed former brothel-keeper
Cynthia Payne to provide members with sexy chats.
A spokesman for Culture and Media Secretary Chris
Smith said programme content was a matter for BBC
management and, ultimately, the corporation's
governors.
But he added: "The
Secretary of State would
expect the management and,
if necessary, the governors to
consider carefully this sort of
programme if it transpires
there is a decision to
broadcast these scenes."
Conservative health
spokesman Philip Hammond
condemned the filming as an
"obscene use" of licence
payers' money.
Mr Hammond said: "When I first heard of this enterprise I
thought it was a joke. This is quiet an unbelievable thing
to do with licence-payers' money."
'Stretched beyond limits'
"To use the continued hype over Viagra as an excuse to
show live sex on prime-time television is to stretch the
interpretation of public service broadcasting beyond its
limits."
Conservative party officials were investigating whether
the corporation had broken the law by filming use of
Viagra as it has not yet been licensed in Britain, he said.
Miss Owens was not prepared to discuss the
programme.
But speaking from her London home, she said:
"Obviously I think that most people should find out what
is true about sex rather than the nonsense printed in the
papers and put on television about sex."
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