Let's talk about sexually transmitted diseases, baby

AT last a documentary that puts paid to the notion that people will do anything to get 15 minutes of TV fame. Usually, celebrities and ordinary people can't wait to get in front of a camera for a reality programme.

The producers of Tainted Love, however, found a marked reluctance among people they asked to talk to them. This was possibly because they were roaming around a sexual health clinic in London.

Of the 2,000 patients the makers approached over three months, only nine agreed to be shown and talk on screen. Fortunately for the programme, these were only too willing to put their private life - and indeed their privates - on parade. Trousers were dropped, knickers discarded, and swabs taken.

More terrifying were the attitudes expressed by those suffering from sexual diseases. Messages about protected sex are passing them by. Only Colleen's mother seemed to display any sense. She can't stop her young daughter sleeping with boys, but ensures she has a supply of condoms. She even insists her daughter's boyfriends are checked out at the clinic before having sex.

How different to David, who had gonorrhoea, possibly the result of a one night stand with a mystery woman. He was so drunk he couldn't remember anything of what happened the night it happened.

Del couldn't keep off the wagon while on antibiotics, and had unprotected sex with the girlfriend who'd infected him in the first place.

Ben's tests showed he was clear, which meant his infected girlfriend had slept with someone else. He blamed the film crew for making him wonder about the source of the infection, while showing a marked reluctance to face his girlfriend with the accusation.

Danielle had unprotected sex because her boyfriend "says it feels better". She had slept with someone else, although said: "I feel bad about cheating on him but I love him to bits". Sleeping around seemed a funny way of showing it.

Gary seemed one of the more sensible participants at first. "Just a cuddle would be fine," he said after being told oral sex was out of the question. Ironically, he appeared to have caught it from someone who worked in a centre for the control of infectious diseases.

By the time of Gary's second visit, he was admitting to having heat of the moment, unprotected, penetrative sex in a public toilet. He needed, he explained, to boost his ego during the emotional downtimes. He wanted a relationship but, as he approached 40, was without a regular partner.

There was good news by the time of his seventh visit. His health problem hadn't been caused by sexual intercourse but by excessive masturbation.