New reality show is a 'unique experiment' with the ick factor

Philip Cunnington on Virgin Island

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At first-and, to be honest, second-glance, Channel 4's new reality show Virgin Island looks like the usual tawdry gimmick dressed up as pioneering science.

Once again, we have people sent to a “paradise island”, where they are to take part in a “unique experiment”.

Only this time, for us repressed Britons as least, it has the added ick factor of being about sex and requiring the airing of feelings and emotions.

In this instance, 12 young people in their 20s and early 30s are marooned on an island in the Med with “ground-breaking sex therapists” Celeste and Danielle and their plucky band of “international sex coaches”.

They're there to help our flirty dozen - all virgins who are becoming increasingly concerned they will never find anyone willing to get intimate with them - move past their fears, neuroses and hang-ups and find sexual fulfilment.

If this sounds like the worst, most excruciating, television ever, then on one hand, you'd be right.