Channel 4 sparks outrage with show about school that teaches virgins how to have sex

James from Kent, who is 26 and had never slept with a woman, visited a sex school in Amsterdam, where he spent three months learning "the art of intimacy".

Viewers were subjected to the uncomfortable sight of James losing his virginity to a sex therapist in the show called The Virgin School.

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Over the course of the programme, a nervous James completed stages with different sex coaches, starting with confidence lessons and concluding with full sex.

James said he viewed his first sexual partner, Bridget, more as a friend and was pleased he went through with it. He was also filmed having a shower with Bridget while she masturbated him.

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Although he has not had sex since, James said the show had boosted his confidence.

According to the programme, while the majority of people lost their virginity by 18, around four per cent of people haven't had sex by the time they hit 25.

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It is part of a series of programmes about virginity lined up for this year, which will also look at the different ways in which people lose their virginity.

But a media pressure group has branded the show as "juvenile" and "offensive".

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John Beyer, director of Mediawatch UK said: "It beggars belief. It's yet another example of them trying to attract viewers with a programme about sex. It is really time that Channel 4 grew up.

"They are so caught up in their own importance that they really can't see beyond their own quest for sensationalism and controversy."

The programme's launch last year came in the wake of claims by the man who launched Channel 4, that the broadcaster had become fixated with sex and "adolescent transgression".

Jeremy Isaacs, who was the broadcaster's first chief executive when it went on air in 1982, claimed the channel had dumbed down to chase ratings, abandoning much of the quality programming behind its success.

But a Channel 4 spokesman said: "Virgin School is a sensitive documentary that follows one young man's effort to overcome a major obstacle in his life.

"The programme focuses on his emotional journey and his growing confidence with women, not the final result."

The next show called Make Me A Virgin is a documentary where filmmaker and ex-evangelical Christian Jamie Campbell investigates the claim that more and more teenagers are holding on to their virginity as a reaction against the sex obsessed culture of our times.

Channel 4 will then screen Desperate Virgins, an investigation into the lives of three people who have yet to have sex.