In the opening episode, Amanda and Dan explore how attitudes towards sex differed drastically before the intervention of Christianity. Starting in Ancient Sparta, Amanda trains as a Spartan woman to learn how they were just as kick-ass as the men.
Henry VIII’s affair with Anne Boleyn is brought to life showing how Anne’s sexual control over the King could only last so long before it ended disastrously for her. Amanda learns how Samuel Pepys wrote something hotter than even the Great Fire of London in his diary. Oh, and Dan learns how to joust.
Our hosts approach the Georgian era from two very different angles. Amanda learns how a true society girl was prepared to be a debutante in front of Queen Charlotte, while Dan makes his own animal intestine condom. He then discovers a Georgian-era guide to London and reveals how many brothels existed in the city at that time. Amanda pulls back the covers on Anne Lister, the most famous lesbian of the period, and how she lived her trailblazing life.
Forget what you think you know about the Victorians because we’re about to reveal that behind closed doors they were one of the most sexually progressive societies in history. Amanda gets to grips with Queen Victoria’s biggest secrets and Dan looks at what historians believe was the mother of the modern-day vibrator. Amanda finds out about the victims of Jack the Ripper and exposes Victorians’ fascination with the serial killer. She then learns about the Victorian BDSM scene and tries out her new-found skills on a consenting Dan Jones.
We like to think that we are living in the most sexually liberal period in history, but we’re actually about to discover that sexual attitudes have changed more in the last century than any other. Dan finds out how sex was used to motivate the troops during WWII through the use of saucy cartoons. Amanda and Dan both dress up as some of the biggest sexual icons of the century, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Amanda also learns how sex changed for women with the advent of the birth control pill before finding out what got Brits swinging in the 1970s.
