Italians and TV

BBC NEWS | Europe | Too sexy for Italian television

A couple of odd things from this story about Italian TV: until recently, the weather report was done by military forecasters. (Scroll down the report to see a picture.) More surprisingly, Italians may be getting tired of the gratuitously semi-dressed female form popping up on TV all the time:

Men in many countries would surely be more than happy to see so much flesh on show on their screens - but why do Italian channels offer so much more than those in other countries?

There are two reasons, according to Professor Michele Sorice, who teaches History of Radio and Television at Rome's main university.

"On one hand the TV variety programmes come largely from Italy's show tradition, which has always featured half-naked dancers," he said.

"On the other hand it comes from a terrible lack of ideas," he added.

But things could soon start to change.

Mr Sorice believes viewers are already sick of these programmes. Surveys show they watch, but criticise them harshly.

"I think even Italians are a bit bored with always seeing undressed women on the television," Mr Sorice said.

"The proof of this is in the fact that the biggest hits on Italian TV in recent months have actually been the period dramas."

Speaking of such things, has anyone else noticed how the most sexually explicit European cinema (by far) now seems to come from Spain? Yet they still have a low birthrate. Strange world.