Members only

THE things some journalists will do for a TV programme.

In the second part of Extreme Male Beauty, Tim Shaw gets his bits out on camera as part of his quest to rid himself of his man boobs, hairy back and beer belly.

He owns up to an obsession with the size of his penis and, in the show, tries to get a bigger one, experimenting with a variety of gadgets. He learns what women think of various shapes and sizes, as he drops his pants alongside four other men in a revealing line-up.

One of the things that drove Shaw to do it is the fact that no one else will. Penises, he maintains, are something blokes don’t often talk about. “Women think we do, and think men have massive insecurity issues about it. I just wanted to get mine out and say, ‘let’s find out if they do or they don’t’. I want to be the first to say, ‘look, I don’t care’.

“I want to do this for the benefit of men.

I wanted to be that normal bloke on the telly that all other blokes watching say, ‘I look like that’. Rather than always having to be a body beautiful guy, I wanted to represent the bloke with a hairy back and an average-size penis.”

Among the equipment he tried to make it bigger were stretching devices and suction pumps. The method that he stuck with, because it was the only one he thought he could actually manage, is called jelqing. I’m afraid you’ll have to watch the programme to find out the details, as they’re far too intimate to list in a family newspaper.

I’m not so sure his health and fitness regime was a good thing. His body turned out great, but he became a different, and far less pleasant, person. So much so that his wife took the children and moved out.

But he had a job to do – to investigate the world of male vanity – and was determined to see it through to the end. So out went his “typical blokey, have-a-goodlaugh lifestyle”. You know the sort of thing: five pints-a-night, kebabs, pizzas, crisps, Chinese, curries, chips, convenience lifestyle, knocking around with a load of mates, just a carefree fun guy.

In the first part, he had to stand in front of a group of critical women in only his pants, something he describes as “like verbal rape” and “probably one of the hardest things I did”.

His eight-week regime saw him lose two stones by doing away with terrible food and lack of exercise. He exercised in the gym five days a week, did cardio finess seven days a week and gave up carbs.

The programme shows people having surgery, something he says he’d never consider doing. One doctor told him that, after some testing, he could hop up on the table and, in six hours, have a six pack.

“Now it’s an option for men, and that’s dangerous,” he says. “I hope I never go for surgery, but there might be a day that I do. At this moment in time, I’m so anti, it’s incredible. I hope to make it through the rest of my life without this sort of thing becoming that important to me.”

He’s may be still struggling with some elements, but doesn’t regret making the series. “I found it fascinating, I’ve learnt a lot,” says Shaw.

“I spent 34 years wanting to look the way I look now. And I’m so pleased for myself and for anyone else out there who might benefit from this, that I’ve done it and tried it and learnt that there is nothing beneficial about it at all, apart from the fact that it might leave you a little healthier and on this planet for longer.

“But I’d rather be on the planet for a slightly shorter amount of time and have had a damn good time, rather than be a good-looking t*** and die five years later, having had no fun.”