utterly naked

There’s nothing like an edgily sexual role to shake up the reputation of a former child star – as Daniel Radcliffe discovered in Equus (Credit: Equus)

No getting around it -- naked has its allure. But when it comes to sexy in general, it is what is covered that is sexy; what is naked is just, well, naked. Strange how people will run off to see others who are naked and yet, on arrival, be almost-gallingly disappointed.

I guess what brought this to mind was a BBC story about nudity on stage.

There’s nothing like the promise of naked flesh to shift tickets. So twigged Mrs Laura Henderson, owner of an ailing West End theatre in the 1930s – and she also got around the stage censor by promising that her cast of nude young ladies wouldn’t move a muscle. The Windmill soon became the most popular theatre in town, its static, classical tableaux of de-robed lovelies proving more of a draw than any song-and-dance routine. Bare bottoms, it turned out, meant bums on seats – and the theatre was the only one not to close during World War Two.

Anyone who has had an orgasm knows that there is a difference between being utterly naked and just being naked.