Having set about a few years ago to write a novel about objectification and the darker side to our ‘hyper-sexualised’ culture, I was interested to find out more about the motives of the mothers who featured in this documentary.

My book project began with concerns about the way soft porn seemed to have crept into, was influencing contemporary popular culture, including the fashion, beauty and music industries. It led me through my research into the swamp of hard-core porn, and its easy accessibility online to young minds. The mums, I guess like many today, were horrified by the latter, particularly the misogyny and ‘wrong messages’ of much of the content, skewing expectations and self-perceptions of young people around their sexuality.

The aim and the biggest challenge of my novel, ‘Blue Is the Object‘ was to create a balance in the narrative between a fun, light-hearted perspective of glamour and sex work, and the grimmer aspects and pitfalls of the industry.

So I admire the mothers’ courage in highlighting and tackling this subject so openly. However, I am not sure that producing their own film offers a real solution to the problem, when there is apparently already so much varied content out there already to choose from. Even with the help of top porn scriptwriter and producer, Dick Bush (welcome comic moment – you couldn’t make that up – Dick says he didn’t! It’s his real name, Dick says.)

I did empathise with the mum who shuddered a lot, the one who threw up during a visit to a porn film set, and the one who said it wasn’t her “cup of tea.” I also enjoyed the humourous ‘M & S’ food-porn ads in between.

Maybe I’ll get round to catching up on Episodes 2 and 3 eventually. Meanwhile, let’s get that kettle on. Mine’s milk. No sugar. Or artificial sweeteners please.