THE TELEGRAPH: Channel 4's Life Class delivers an important lesson on the human form, whatever the moral guardians of daytime TV say, writes Jemima Lewis.
"Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed," said William Blake. But the moral guardians of daytime TV take a different view. The Channel 4 programme Life Class caused conniptions last week by showing a woman sitting very still with no clothes on.
The point of the programme is to replicate a real life class, with the viewers at home encouraged to pick up a pencil. The camera stays fixed on the model from one angle, only occasionally cutting away to take a peek at what the "tutor" – one of a series of distinguished artists – has drawn.
It is filmed in a determinedly untitillating way, more Open University than Nuts magazine, and in fact the first three episodes went out last week without any kerfuffle. It was only on Thursday – when Kirsten Varley, a fashion model of uncommon loveliness, dropped her silky dressing gown and stepped on to the dais – that the forces of puritanism pricked up their ears.
Channel 4 was said to have had dozens of complaints: one viewer, who watched the programme while ill in bed, croaked: "It nearly gave me a relapse. It was adult viewing, not for screening in the middle of the day."
John Beyer, of the TV pressure group Mediawatch UK, said he had referred the matter to Ofcom after being contacted by scandalised parents. "Obviously, people feel this is not suitable for daytime TV when they have children at home," he opined. "It's a pity Channel 4 cannot revive its Watercolour Challenge show."
We all miss Watercolour Challenge, John, but there comes a time when you have to let go. As for the effect of Life Class on young minds: who are these children who have never seen a naked body before? And more importantly, why not?
Going naked in front of your offspring is one of the duties of parenthood. Studies show – and common sense suggests – that children from households where nudity is commonplace grow up to feel more comfortable in their own skin. We need the background scenery of other people's bodies – dumpy, scrawny, dimpled or lean – in order to be reassured that our own peculiarities are normal. >>> Jemima Lewis | Saturday, July 11, 2009
