Naked Ape man told to cut sex scenes

The zoologist Desmond Morris said yesterday that he had cut scenes of homosexuals cruising the streets and prostitutes having sexual intercourse with clients from his new BBC series after TV bosses warned him they would be offensive to viewers, writes Charlie Bain.

Mr Morris's last BBC series, The Human Animal, caused controversy when it showed intimate moments of a couple during orgasm.

The follow-up, The Opposite Sex, was to have used footage of sexual promiscuity to throw light on the study of sexual relationships between men and women. However, BBC executives warned him that the scenes would have to be cut from versions to be sold in many less sexually liberated countries.

The zoologist, who rose to fame with his book, The Naked Ape, which analyses the behaviour of humans as if they were animals, decided to tone down the series, and will concentrate on the archeological remains of a 2,500- year-old brothel at Ephesus in Turkey to show that some men's need for emotionless "sexual relief" was centuries old and not a new phenomenon.

Mr Morris said the scenes being cut formed only a "tiny" percentage of the series.

"It is not about sexual relations but about the relationship between men and women, what it is to be male and female or masculine and feminine, and how the two sexes relate - and are related - to one another," said Mr Morris.

The series is set to be shown in Britain in autumn next year.