Lord Longford snorted balderdash

Back in 1971, Dr Martin Cole caused quite a stir with his sex education film “Growing Up”



The scenes that made the front pages involved a 15-year old boy, naked except for a vest, lying on a bed wanking with an blank expression on his face; a young naked woman lying on her side, also masturbating; and a naked couple having rather slow and ritualistic intercourse on a clinically bare set.



The education minister, Margaret Thatcher, denounced the film but said she had no powers to stop it being shown in schools.

Lord Longford snorted ‘Balderdash!’ and stormed out. He was in the middle of researching his anti-pornography bill, which involved watching an ‘exhaustive catalogue of sex films’, visiting a sex supermarket, and going to a strip club, which he found ‘neither pleasant nor unpleasant’.



Lord Longford

The leader of Birmingham Council saw the film and said he felt ‘debased’ by a ‘pseudo-technical display of sexual depravity … This man [Cole] must be totally obsessed with sex.’

To be fair, that might well have been true. The man who the Sun rapidly dubbed ‘Sex King Cole’ responded: ‘These people are clearly tormented by their own neuroses.’



not to be confused with Nat King Cole

The real storm broke when it turned out that the woman wanking in the film was a schoolteacher, 23-year old Jennifer Muscutt, who taught liberal studies to 15-year old boys. Her husband, also a teacher, defended her involvement and said if they had children they’d have no problem showing it to them.

By now, screenings of the film were playing to huge audiences. It was shown by everyone from the Defence of Literature and Arts Society to a Birmingham strip club, which advertised it alongside artistes Saucy Susan, Delightful Delilah and Tantalising Teresa.



Saucy Susan

Just when it looked like it was finally going away – eight months later – questions were raised in the House of Commons about Cole’s use of female volunteers as sex therapists. A young woman had written to him, impressed by his claims in the papers about his treatment for impotent men, and asked to find out more – Cole quickly set her up having sex with his clients in her flat at £1.50 a pop until her policeman boyfriend banged on the door in the middle of a session.



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