Final credits for soft-porn pioneer

As an epitaph, it was probably what soft-porn movie-maker George Harrison Marks would have wanted: "George's films were basically Carry On movies with tits and bums."

That was how Mr Marks's cult classics were described yesterday by friend and business colleague Peter Fairbrass, following the film-maker's death from liver cancer at the age of 71.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Mr Marks flooded Britain's cinemas with such tackiness as Naked as Nature Intended, The Nine Ages of Nakedness and Come Play With Me. They were controversial at the time but now seem refreshingly naive compared with the pornography available today.

Mr Marks began his career in comedy before moving over to glamour photography, using as his subjects the showgirls of London's Windmill Theatre.

Shortly afterwards he decided to make nude films but he rejected claims that his movies were pornographic.

"They were never pornography," said Mr Fairbrass. "He always thought that the acid test was that if a jury watched the film would they have a laugh at it?"

Steve Boggan