Channel 4 is to broadcast some of the most controversial sex scenes on television with a new commission from ITN-owned production arm Visual Voodoo. The 90-minute programme, X-rated: The Sex Films They Tried to Ban, is being lined up for a Sunday night slot in the spring. It will look at sex films and pornography from early French films through to 1970s films to the “hardcore revolution”. The programme will be directed by Simon George and produced by Toby Dye. It was commissioned by C4 editor, factual entertainment, Andrew MacKenzie, and follows on from the Visual Voodoo commission X Rated: the Pop Vidoes They Tried to Ban.

TV producer Toby Dye gives an R-rated look at the history of sex on film.

1896 French film French film stag film John Mortimer 1950s nudist film Black Mass stag film 1954's Garden of Eden modern nudist couple Tracey Cox Father in Garden of Eden Father finds he's in a nudist colony I Am Curious Yellow's famous topless carrot-munching scene Robin Askwith Lasse Braun Jessica Stevenson 1950s British nudist film - healthy and wholesome David Friedman's 1959 Adventures of Lucky Pierre David Friedman Erica Gavin (?) in Russ Meyer's 1968 film Vixen Erica Gavin Vixen lesbianism NY World Theater owner after judge's ruling stops Deep Throat Marilyn Chambers Marilyn Chambers in Behind the Green Door Marilyn, Ivory Snow box girl Robin Askwith Mary Millington 1970s Brit film censor John Trevalyan Come Play With Me, Britain's highest grossing sex comedy Robin Askwith Robin Robin's screen partner Sue Longhurst today Sue Longhurst then Robin, Sue Robin Askwith Mary Whitehouse Mary's 1971 Festival of Light campaign rally Porn baron David Sullivan in the 1970s Mary Millington Mary Millington Come Play With Me Mary stars in Brit lesbian romping Mary Millington Mary Millington Mary David Sullivan today Mary Whitehouse and hubby (?) Mary Millington Mary Millington Traci Lords Traci Lords Traci Lords Eric Edwards plays the doctor in Caught From Behind 2 Paul Thomas Tommy Lee Pamela Lee Margo Stilley of British porn flick Nine Songs Kevin Blatt Jonathan Silverstein Jack Osbourne Paris Hilton, Rick Salomon Rick Salomon Paris Hilton Marilyn Monroe ringer in Apple Knockers and Coke Liz Bonnin

Barrister and author John Mortimer: "I think the British attitude to sex is to see it, goggle at it, and then condemn it."

Sexpert Tracey Cox: "Most people won't see real people have sex in the whole of their lives."

Ben Dover: "It's a car crash thing. You just have to look at it."

Retired FBI agent Bill Kelly: "Pornographers are like vermin. We will always have them with us. It's a question of prosecuting the worst offenders."

Marilyn Chambers: "I was arrested. I was taken to jail naked. I was allowed to put my fur coat on. Then, when I got there, in the holding tank, all of the cops came in and wanted a Polaroid picture of me."

Jack Osbourne, son of Ozzy, makes a lot of comments.

Narrator: "A few months after the movie camera was invented, the sex film was born, and unsurprisingly it was the randy old French..."

There's 1896 footage of a topless woman brushing her hair.

Jessica Stevenson, actress: "One of the main pleasures of pornography is just looking at the female form."

Porn film historian David McGillivray on the first stag films: "There were no taboos at all.... Men with animals."

Footage from Le Canard plays. A man sits down with wild fowl. "So shocking is this film is that it can't be screened legally anywhere in the Western world.

"French stag film makers went out of their way to offend as many authority figures as possible [particularly the Roman Catholic church]."

Jack: "We're not only going to have sex on film, but we're going to get the Devil involved."

Footage plays of Black Mass (1923).

Footage plays of Apple, Knockers and Coke. The model looks like Marilyn Monroe.

Narrator: "The studios attempted to bury any evidence that it existed."

Al Goldstein: "Marilyn Monroe f----- her way to the top. The casting couch."

John Landis: "That was not Marilyn Monroe. It was a stripper. It's a lovely film with the Coke bottle. It's quite sweet but it's not Marilyn Monroe."

The discussion moves to the nudist films of 1950s. "They [theaters] would be packed with men looking at naked women playing volleyball. These were not aficionados of volleyball. They wanted to look at tits and ass."

David: "People realized that if you made films about naturism, which was healthy, you could give men pictures of naked women."

Garden of Eden was the first (1955).

Narrator: "Garden of Eden was an innocent tale of one woman's introduction to the wonderful carefree world of nudism, where, after witnessing such sights as semi-naked buffets, the joys of unencumbered water sports, and the bond between God's creatures at one with nature, she would come to the Eureka realization that..."

Nudists Jane and Andrew: "Naturism is a way of life in harmony with nature. It's a feeling of being liberated, open and free with yourself."

Narrator: "After being reassured that there was nothing remotely immoral with nudism, she sheds the unnecessary burden of clothing in a scene the filmmakers milked for all its worth.

"Granting the moral fury that nudity would immediately cause, the filmmakers introduced a father figure who would have the same moral concerns that any upstanding American would when he unwittingly realizes that his daughter is hanging out in a nudist colony."

Jack: "There's this guy hanging out in the dock and he's like, 'Hey Frank, isn't it a wonderful morning?' Then he walks past the guy and you see this old ass. Ehhh."

That's when the father first realizes he is in a nudist colony.

Kevin Blatt: "Everybody is jumping and frolicking in the water. It's not every day you get to see these chubby old guys smoking pipes on boats."

Sexpert Tracey Cox: "The father-in-law accepts nudity and suddenly all of Britain accepts it."

The floodgates opened. But no pubic hair was allowed until 1966 in mainstream films.

Tracey: "To get sex on screen, we would have to look to the Europeans."

Footage plays of the black-and-white I Am Curious Yellow (1968).

Narrator: "Filled with casual sex and bizarre topless carrot-munching scenes...it shot to worldwide notoriety.

"It had lofty politicals aspirations with the young heroine Lena protesting about anything she could think of. However, she was easily distracted when it came to sex. In this scene, the conversation meanders from politics to preferred methods of self-abuse."

Luke F-rd: "It's not erotic. It's got all this political mumbo-jumbo which makes no sense."

Nevertheless, after sitting through 39-minutes of cold political theorizing, [simulated sex]... The film's truly controversial scene of oral sex was shot in daring close-up.

It couldn't get through customs in Britain.

Ben Dover, at 14, sat through an edited version. "We stuck through it thinking we were going to see a bit of naughtiness, but sadly not."

Footage plays of W.R. Mysteries of the Organism (1971) about pioneering sex researcher Wilheim Reich. "Come lovers. For health's sake, f--- freely." It reached British cinema screens uncut.

Jessica Stevenson, actress: "There doesn't seem to be any apparent reason why they're having orgasms. You just see these women in sixties bikinis having orgasms while doctors stand over them."