- 40-Year-Old Virgins follows IT engineer Clive as he undergoes sex therapy
- Works with Cheryl Cohen-Greene, 68, who inspired film The Sessions
- Devout Christian loses his virginity to surrogate after two weeks of therapy
- Mediawatch said documentary could ‘cross the line into voyeurism’
Scenes of a 45-year-old IT engineer losing his virginity to a 68-year-old ‘sex surrogate’ are to be aired on prime-time television.
Channel 4 documentary 40-Year-Old Virgins follows devout Christian Clive as he flies to the U.S. to meet Cheryl Cohen-Greene, a sex therapist and surrogate sexual partner whose work inspired last year’s Oscar-nominated film The Sessions starring Helen Hunt.
Viewers will see Ms Cohen-Greene perform a sex act on shy Clive, from Hertfordshire, who has intercourse for the first time after a fortnight of radical sex therapy with the surrogate.
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Intimate: The Channel 4 documentary follows shy Clive (left), 45, as he undergoes radical sex therapy with Cheryl Cohen-Greene (right), 68
Controversial: The documentary also features 29-year-old virgin Rosie (right) as she works with her sexual ‘surrogate’, Gary (left), 55
The documentary, set to air at 9pm on Thursday, shows the ‘intense bond’ that develops between Clive and Ms Cohen-Greene as she helps him to face his fears of intimacy, Channel 4 said.
COURTING CONTROVERSY AGAIN: SOME OF CHANNEL 4’S MOST NOTORIOUS PROGRAMMES
The Undateables: The name of this dating series for singles with disabilities sparked outrage before the series even aired, with viewers insisting the title was ‘offensive’ and ‘horrible’.
Virgin School: The documentary following nervous James, 26, as he spent three months learning the ‘art of intimacy’ at an Amsterdam sex school, was branded ‘juvenile’ and ‘offensive’ by family values campaign group Mediawatch.
Tramadol Nights: From offensive comments about Katie Price’s disabled son Harvey, to the use of racial slurs in sketches, Scottish comic Frankie Boyle’s short-lived Channel 4 comedy series was shrouded in controversy for much of its run.
The Joy of Teen Sex: Scenes of lesbian sex and a ‘guide to anal sex’ were among the controversial material tackled by this factual entertainment series. Channel 4 was accused of taking television to ‘new depths of sexual explicitness’ by the newspaper Christian Today.
Virgin Rosie, who thinks men smell like ‘a cross between aftershave and ham’, is seen working with her own surrogate partner, 55-year-old Gary, an ex-professional tennis player turned counsellor.
Vivienne Patterson, a spokeswoman for Mediawatch, which campaigns for family values in the media, said she worried that the documentary could cross the line from educational programming into voyeurism.
‘I haven’t seen it yet but I do understand there is a scene in there where he [Clive] goes to see a sex therapist and eventually you see him losing his virginity,’ she said.
Ms Patterson said that while educational programming was ‘fantastic’, problems could crop up because of the expectation that shows also be entertaining – particularly given the documentary’s 9pm prime-time slot.
‘You get this very difficult cross-over,’ she said, citing previous Channel 4 shows like The Joy of Teen Sex.
The factual entertainment series was billed as a ‘bold and informative’ look at the love lives and sex lives of teenagers, but was branded ‘porn’ by critics.
‘It’s legitimate to have a programme where teens can ask questions about matters sexual… but it became exploitative,’ Ms Patterson said.
In 2007 Channel 4 broadcast Virgin School, which followed 26-year-old James as he attended a course for sexually inexperienced men in Amsterdam.
Shy: The IT engineer from Hertfordshire loses his virginity to the ‘sex surrogate’, whose work inspired the film The Sessions
‘Voyeurism’: Mediawatch said the documentary was in danger of crossing the line into voyeurism
Inspiration: Sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen-Greene inspired the film The Sessions, starring Helen Hunt
‘Difficult cross-over’: Channel 4’s factual entertainment series The Joy of Teen Sex bordered on exploitative, Mediawatch said
VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Channel 4’s 40-Year-Old Virgins documentary
Read more: Mail Online
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