7 days ago
Even Queen Victoria must bow to our sex obsession
T he August silly season was once a delight. Global unrest has always been news but for decades mainstream media battled to cheer us up during the parliamentary recess with boozing ducks, burnt toast shaped like Jesus and seagulls stealing dentures (the latter reported in Bexhill 2013, Torquay 2017, Brittany 2024; none this year, but there's still time).
This year all we've really had has been Bridport men demonstrating a pub-skittle technique involving a deep squat and beer-belly slither, and the splendid Japanese ambassador Hiroshi Suzuki taking his Paddington Bear toy to a marmalade factory. Otherwise the old silly season is replaced by a perennial 'sex season', led right now by two heavily reported Channel 4 documentaries. Each reveals how unenchantingly dreary is the modern preoccupation with fornication.
