Let’s hear it for mature sizzlers

A DECADE ago I was an agony aunt offering sex and relationship advice to men and women of all ages.

The letters that moved me most were the ones from women in their 50s, 60s and 70s, recently divorced or suddenly single who feared they were on the sexual scrap heap.

Romance, passion, smoochy cuddles or swinging from the chandeliers... finito.

I’d reassure them that, with time, they’d feel differently and find Mr Right, or perhaps a Mr Right Now.

But I often thought that a 50+ version of hit franchise Sex And The City would be a great way to help boost their esteem.

Book Club – the new movie romcom about silver sex – sounded like that.

It stars Jane Fonda, 80, Candice Bergen and Diane Keaton, both 72, and Mary Steenburgen, 65, all pictured, as pals who rediscover their sensual urges through a novel at their reading group.

Except the book is the excruciating Fifty Shades of Grey, the film is a cliched, bum-clenching shocker and the four brilliant actresses play staggeringly one-dimensional caricatures. What a wasted opportunity to portray single women over 50 as lustful, desirable, confident, empowered and REAL.

Like the sensational Kylie Minogue who celebrated her 50th this week.

A poll commissioned by the movie makers found a third of women in their 50s feel sexier and more confident than ever and want more sex.

While a quarter of single women in their 60s are happily using dating apps or websites to meet someone new. Yet a sadder survey has just revealed that women feel “invisible” from the age of 45, they fear men no longer fancy them and wish they could “turn the clock back” to get the same attention they enjoyed in their 20s.

I wish we could start celebrating the sexual allure of older women on film, TV and at every opportunity without cliches or tokenism.

On Saturday, ITV airs a special edition of Take Me Out for the Over 50s – which I hope I’m going to likey.

The 30 females include a former nun, a celeb actor’s ex and a woman wanting husband No6.

And Paddy Mcguinness has the cheeky charm to handle it all without patronising the women.

Yet the publicity blurb insists on calling them “golden girls” looking for “fabulous older gentlemen”.

I wish they’d got some young hunks too – Mr Right Nows, not just potential Mr Rights.

And I really hope it’s not just “heartwarming” as billed.

I want it to be sizzling, collar-heating, and raunchy.

So that Flirty Fifties looking for romance realise Book Club isn’t the last word in later life lust and love.