Programme criticised by family campaigners:
Quote:
C4 under fire over real-life teen sex
By James Morrison, Arts and Media Correspondent
12 October 2003
Family campaigners last night called on Channel 4 to pull this week's teenage version of Big Brother featuring the first scene of real-life sex ever shown on British television.
Claire Rayner, the veteran TV agony aunt, and a leading charity urged executives to reconsider their decision to screen the peak-time show, in which 18-year-olds Tommy Wright and Jade Dyer are shown having sex under a duvet. Ms Rayner described the programme as "criminal", while Robert Whelan, the director of Family and Youth Concern, advised viewers to "get a life" and boycott it.
The decision to include the scenehas also been criticised by Mr Wright's mother, Christine. Mrs Wright of Weymouth, Dorset, told London's Evening Standard newspaper her family was in "shock" and described Channel 4 as "irresponsible".
Teen Big Brother, to be screened over five nights at 10pm from tomorrow, is controversial in several respects. It was originally commissioned by 4Learning, Channel 4's educational unit, as a serious daytime programme exploring the "reality" of modern teenage life. But when executives realised how potentially explosive the footage was, they decided to switch it to prime time - with a re-edited version for teenagers to follow in a daytime slot next January...
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