Thanks to the usually welcome intimacy of radio, it can be hard to endure people talking frankly about their sex lives on-air. I had trouble yesterday, during The Sex Lives of Us (Radio 4), keeping my coffee down as one contributor revealed how her husband initiates sex. "He can expose himself," she said, with the beginnings of a filthy cackle, "and make funny remarks." They don't like to reserve sex for the bedroom, either, preferring the novelty of, say, "the edge of the settee when Heartbeat's on". In fact, this couple give reticence a body swerve wherever possible, especially in sex surveys for radio. Her husband, she explained, has a long tongue. "Because of his big tongue," she cried, deep in mirth now, "that's why we've been together 40 years."
It wasn't all so steamy. You could hear truth seeping out in answers that were not cloaked in jaunty laughter or cliche. "We do still have sex every so often," said one man, plainly, of his long-term relationship. And a happy 70-year-old widow talked about sex with her new boyfriend. "I don't have to wash his socks or iron his shirts," she said. "I'm getting the best of everything."
