Those tuning into This Morning, eager to see their favourite cookery and fashion features, were instead confronted by two couples simulating sex live on air.

In one scene a young couple were shown testing out how to have sex when there is a height difference, while an older pair revealed the best positions to adopt when one party is tired.

It then featured a short interview with 23-year-old Dannii Frost, who complained she had never had an orgasm with her partner of three years. Although presenter Philip Schofield kept a straight face as the spectacle unfolded, it was too much for co-host Holly Willoughby, who spent most of the time giggling and pulling faces.

But not everyone was laughing last night. A few viewers have turned to internet message boards and to media groups to complain about the ITV daytime programme, which is dedicating much of its output this week to dealing with viewers' sexual problems and questions.

Vivienne Pattison, director of MediaWatch UK, said: I've had people ringing in to complain about this and they are right to do so. Lots of people were offended. This was broadcast well before the watershed and when young children are likely to be watching. It is not appropriate. ITV have crossed a line here.

However Schofield was unrepentant, writing on his Twitter page: I am loving the "outrage" at This Morning's sex week. It was all perfectly decent and you got two warnings. And he warned that the rest of the week would cover sex toys, sexual taboos and infidelity.

Update: Ofcom's Position

17th March 2010. Based on article from broadcastnow.co.uk

Ofcom is not planning to investigate viewers complaints about This Morning's sex-themed week, Sex Up Your Life.

The regulator confirmed this morning that complaints had been made about models simulating sex positions on the morning television programme. A spokesman said there were no plans to investigate the complaints, which focused on the suitability of the show pre-watershed.

Scotland Yard has received a complaint about a Channel 4 alternative comedy series in which two men inflict pain on each other for fun.

The programme – Balls Of Steel – features Michael Locke and Matthew Pritchard, who perform masochistic acts including giving each other electric shocks and stapling paper to their tongues.

The pair – who go under the name Pancho and Pritchard, The Pain Men – are shown trying to outdo other performers to win an audience vote. The Pain Men. In one episode, entitled Kitchen Nightmares, one of them pressed raw onion into the open eyes of the other. In a further scene, called School Discipline, one of them beats the other's buttocks with a whip.

43 complaints were previously made to the TV censor when the shows were first televised, Ofcom ruled Channel 4 had not breached its code.

Nutter group Mediawatch-UK claims Channel 4 has breached an 1861 law which forbids people from inflicting bodily harm on each other, even by consent.

The nutters have now written to the Metropolitan Police asking the force to investigate further. But Scotland Yard said a criminal investigation was not appropriate.

Mediawatch-UK are whingeing about an American TV series about the Roman Empire.

Spartacus: Blood And Sand has featured full-frontal nudity, violence and sex scenes of orgies since it first aired in the US in January.

The show, which stars Scottish actor John Hannah and pulled in more than a million viewers this week, is looking for a post-watershed UK home.

But Mediawatch-UK says the programme should not be allowed in Britain, even late at night.

We can no longer ignore the fact that what viewers see on television has an impact on society, said 'outraged' director Vivienne Pattison: Even the Government is asking the producers of soap operas to include safe-sex messages in their programmes now. There are numerous studies linking exposure to violence on TV with violent behaviour at large and if there is the slightest possibility that explicit sex and violence on screen can cause this harm, is it worth the risk in the interests of entertainment?

The lobby group also said it was concerned that children might eventually find the programme online. Once this programme is shown on television it will be much easier for children to access – particularly via video-on-demand online services, she added.

The TV show focuses loosely on the historical figure of Spartacus – a Thracian gladiator who led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic in 73BC.

Update: Slaves to Nonsense

9th March 2010. Based on article from entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

Forget stoic legionaries marching along spear-straight roads; never mind glorious mosaics and monumental architecture; as for heroic literature — no chance. The Romans, to judge by this new version of Spartacus, were mainly preoccupied with sex, intrigue, bloody violence and more sex.

As well as full-frontal nudity, the show features scenes of extreme gore. In one gladiatorial fight, the winner slices off his opponent's face and wears it as a mask.

Perhaps not surprisingly, not everyone is keen to tune in and last week there were calls for the show to be banned even before it has arrived. Vivienne Pattison, director of the campaign group Mediawatch UK, said: I'm not saying the Romans weren't violent. And I don't have a problem with bodies per se. But porn is filtering into society and it's worrying. This programme absolutely encapsulates this problem.

Broadcasters can tell us they're holding a mirror to that society and reflecting back on our own; but I'd argue we are just taking all that in and becoming immune to it.

Is it necessary to see the knife go in, turn round, come out, blood spurt, all the rest of it? You've only got to look at how casual violence has grown to a level that didn't exist before it was so widespread on television. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

The British satellite broadcaster Bravo has bought the show, and has rights to show it online. It means that for up to seven days after its transmission on television, viewers will be able to watch episodes online at any time. The so-called watershed is then ineffective and Mediawatch UK fears Spartacus could be easily watched by children.

Pattison said: Why is it entertaining to watch people being slashed like that with blood everywhere? In no place in society would that be acceptable other than on television. It doesn't even add to the storylines. She plans to campaign for a ban.

Comment: Ban this Filth!

10th March 2010. Thanks to Dan

Just been reading Viv Pattison's bollox about the programme Spartacus.

Like Beyer before her she seems completely unaware she's being used to further the publicity of sex and violence laden TV shows.

Or that her cries to BAN THIS FILTH will only get more people to tune in!

Psychiatrists are to give official recognition to dozens of new mental disorders, including a condition nicknamed Mary Whitehouse syndrome — the thrill of being appalled by pornography and other obscenities.

Absexuality appears to have been inspired by the zeal of Whitehouse, the campaigner who railed against smut on television.

Although there is no evidence that Whitehouse got a kick out of salacious viewing, there is no disputing her passion for attacking broadcasters if she felt their standards had slipped

emark points out though: Sadly I think the Times have got it wrong - I don't think this is in the DSM proposal (I can't find it on www.dsm5.org ), rather it's a proposal by someone else, Carol Queen.

The condition is one of many mood disorders and personality traits that are likely to be added to the next edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the psychiatrists' bible.

The disorders, which also include hypersexuality — the desire for multiple partners, perhaps characterised by the golfer Tiger Woods — reflect changing social patterns. Critics believe, however, that their classification as psychiatric problems may lead them to be exploited for profit by drug companies.

emark notes: The Times also falsely define hypersexuality as merely "the desire for multiple partners". It's sad to see this level of misreporting, especially on an issue that many people won't know much about.

Other new conditions include sluggish cognitive tempo disorder, which some would regard as simple laziness, and relational disorder, in which two people — often a separating couple — struggle to get on. People who whinge constantly may be suffering negativistic personality disorder. Intermittent explosive disorder — otherwise known as adult tantrums — is also defined for the first time.

Comment: Self Diagnosis

Dan adds

How to diagnose Mary Whitehouse Syndrome....

• Do you get a kick out of watching sex, porn and filth on TV just to get offended?
   
• Do you feel the need to write to the Daily Mail in utter outrage every time you see a bare breast on TV?
   
• Do you often get offended by things you haven't seen or heard and which you just read about in the right-wing tabloid press?
   
• Have you ever thought of joining Mediawatch UK?

If the answer to any of the above is yes then you have Mary Whitehouse Syndrome!

Viewers have been whingeing about Celebrity Big Brother after housemates talked about orgies and fivesomes before 9pm.

Nicola T, Dane Bowers, Alex Reid and Basshunter were playing a drinking game called I have never and Nicola T started it off saying I have never masturbated in the Big Brother house

Katie Price's boyfriend Alex Reid then confessed to having had a five-some, although he admitted that he doesn't remember the experience. Dane told of a six-in-a-bed romp.

Media watchdog Ofcom received several complaints about the inappropriate content of the reality TV show.

Campaign group Mediawatch called the scenes inappropriate.