Naked Attraction
Channel 4, Thursdays, 10pm
Crikey!” exclaims naïve 21-year-old Dom, as he surveys the six vaginas in front of him. “They’re very bare. That’s the first thing I noticed…” Well, the clue’s in the title, young man (although he was referring to the lack of hair in their genital area, to be fair). This is Naked Attraction, back for a second series, despite reviews of the first run which said things like, “The bottom of the barrel is being scraped”, “Cynical and amoral”, and even, “A new low for British television.” The reality is it’s actually rather a moral show, whose underlying message is that all body types can be attractive, while also functioning as a jolly amusing chance for viewers to gawk at real people’s genitals and providing endless moments of awkwardness, particularly when the fully nude contestants have to hug each other for the first time and desperately try to avoid inappropriate contact of undercarriages. In case you’ve yet to get on board with the series, the set-up features six members of the public standing in frosted glass tubes, which reveal their body parts bit by bit, while a clothed singleton runs the rule over their wares, eliminating them one by one. Until, that is, they’re happy with their final choice and the chooser also gets naked, so everyone feels comfortable, presumably. Excellent host Anna Richardson doesn’t take off her clothes, although she’s so totally at ease with the format that it really doesn’t matter. The second half of the fun opening episode features pan-sexual Izzy, who’s attracted to people of any sexuality or gender, picking from various trans and non-binary would-be dates. I can only hope Piers “Can I identify as a black woman?” Morgan was watching, and learning.