Chris Shaw is the senior programme controller at Channel 5, which appears these days to have a far more grown-up attitude to sex than C4. He has a word of warning: “Getting the tone right on programmes with a sexual content is extremely tough. Last week, you will recall, the network broadcast Pornography: The Musical, in which porn actresses described in detail what they do on film (and then warbled their way through songs about it), and Teen Big Brother: The Experiment, in which two contestants finally – finally! – did what everyone has been waiting for since the programme began in Britain three years ago.Daisy Goodwin is editorial director of Talkback Thames, which is making The Sex Inspectors for C4. And, just like the beginnings of real-life love affairs, after each date the television company wants to go one step further next time.
Which is why you may also not be entirely taken aback to learn about the latest makeover programme doing the rounds. Channel 4 has given the go-ahead to a pilot of a proposed series called The Sex Inspectors, in which couples who are not happy with their love lives will be filmed having sex – and then offered a tip or two about how to pep things up.It is easy to see why Channel 4 is intrigued.

Sex, a television executive explains, “ticks all the correct boxes – it gets high ratings, appeals to young audiences and is popular with upmarket viewers.” You may not be entirely surprised to learn of TV’s love affair with the subject. “Myxomatosis?”v.graff independent.co.uk’Read All About It! 100 Sensational Years of the Daily Mirror’, by Bill Hagerty, is published by First Stone on 4 November, priced £19.95. He was particularly interested in the details of my one-day sickness “What was wrong?” he asked sympathetically. So you will not find me bragging about what would have been my own entry to the lunch-of-the-year award It was about 10 years ago, at another newspaper. A lunchtime interview with a group of former bunny girls began at 12.30 and just didn’t feel as though it was finished when the waiter collected the plates. I eventually departed at around 8pm – alone, I stress – and just a little the worse for wear.I must have eaten a dodgy prawn. For the next day I was hit by the most appalling food poisoning and was unable to go to work.On my return to the office a day later, a friendly colleague was intrigued to learn more about how my bunny-girl lunch had gone.

Perhaps our more experienced colleagues are suffering from selective memories. If only we could have sampled the old newspaper life, we could now reach a considered judgement on which one was better Weirdly, I had never admitted that feeling out loud before. It was a relief.Hagerty, reflecting on the old days and the fate of some of his colleagues, tells me: “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. But you’ve got a marriage – and you’ve got a liver.”Actually, although I missed out on Fleet Street, there was a brief window of opportunity in my career when “proper” lunching was – very occasionally – possible There is nothing big or macho about enjoying a long lunch. I asked a few colleagues of my generation whether they feel they missed out, too. We commiserated with one another: we were born 10 years too late.

I was faced with computer screens, ergonomically designed desks and chairs and, in time, no-smoking offices (which, as a smug ex-smoker, I now heartily applaud).Do I yearn for the days I never knew? Well, probably. I could have been an accountant otherwise.) I was thrilled by the glamour of the people and their surroundings. I knew this is what I wanted to do.Of course, by the time I started work, all of that had disappeared. There are not many lunches that go on beyond 3.45pm.If I sound nostalgic, I have no right to be I never knew the old Fleet Street That’s not quite true.