Male nudity is too much to bare, says Sanditon star
VETERAN actress Anne Reid has declared that too much male nudity on television is “unnecessary” after the first episode of new period drama Sanditon featured a naked seaside skinnydip.
The 84-year-old, who plays the formidable Lady Denham in the ITV show, said the modern trend for writing mild male nudity into prime-time drama was a sign of the times.
Joking it was the fault of James Bond actor Daniel Craig and the scene in which he emerged from the sea in Casino Royale, she said: “It’s just a thing now – if you’ve got the sea and you’ve got a bloke, then he has to take his kit off and get in the water. There are a lot of naked males around and I think it’s unnecessary. Look at Poldark. But I’m old and it’s what people want nowadays,” Reid told Radio Times.
Sanditon, Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, has been adapted by Andrew Davies, who has become known for writing sex into his TV period dramas. The first episode featured scenes of three male leads striding nude across a beach as well as a sex act in the woods and hints at a storyline about incest.
The beach scene represents something of a triumph for Davies, who originally wanted Colin Firth to be naked when he had him take an impromptu swim in his 1995 BBC adaptation of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
Commenting on the beach scene, Kris Marshall, who plays 19th-century developer Tom Parker, said: “I don’t have a problem showing my bum. The simple fact was female nudity was a lot more hidden away in those days, and male nudity was kind of natural. So it’s historically accurate and Andrew Davies isn’t sexing Austen up at all.”
The show was watched by an average of 3.3million viewers on Sunday night, peaking at 3.6 million. It was beaten by the BBC’S Peaky Blinders, which pulled in an average audience of 3.7million and topped out at 4million.