Stripping down to the bare necessities writes Andy Mitchell

Now I realise if you’re catching a free read of this column in the queue in Morrisons, now might not be the ideal time. However, it would seem the march towards new opinions on nudity is on the increase.

Later this week, we welcome the British Naturists to Blackpool for their annual weekend getaway, and I’ve been asked to do a talk about how the media now sees naturism, and how it appears to be getting more press.

Now I know the recent weather hasn’t exactly leant itself to baring all, but I’m hearing more and more of people who like to get away from it all ( and their clothes) on European beach holidays. There are, indeed thriving resorts where you can walk around in the buff all day.

Once of a day we’d need three weeks’ notice and a warning posted on screen before anything approaching nudity was permitted on telly. Yet here we are in 2020 with a late night Channel 4 programme called Naked Attraction. Voyeurism laid bare for the nation to see, where adults get to pick a mate simply by looking at their naked body. It’s become so common place now, nobody bats an eyelid when someone gets their kit off on telly. Far from entering the second age of Puritanism as first predicted, and leaving Europeans to their naked days out in the park, we have also, in essence, become more continental in our outlook towards nudity.

In the age of podcasts, the subject has become a vehicle for opening up all types of other discussions on body image. BBC Radio Sheffield has just won itself an industry Gold Award for a series of programmes called “The Naked Podcast” You can search them out on BBC Sounds.. and they’ re simply half hour conversations about body image and expectation and how normal people cope with their own body... all done in the buff.

Back at the seaside, and the Naturists arrive on Friday. Whilst I’m no big fan of my own body (as predicted, as the years roll by, I’m turning into my father), I’m not sure the assembled crowd is expecting me to also strip off to give my talk... or should I?!