TV Europa: A million Germans tune in weekly to a sex chat show that leaves no orifice unprobed, writes Derek Scally in Berlin
True love waits, or so the teenage Christians in cardigans tell us. But every Thursday evening over one million Germans cannot wait for their latest dose of True Love (Wahre Liebe), a sex magazine show that leaves no orifice unprobed.
The show, easily the smuttiest programme on German television, is hosted by a blonde transvestite named Lilo Wanders, real name Ernie Reinhardt.
She has won a loyal following thanks to her mix of accidental wit and amateurishness that are the trademarks of Bill O'Herlihy and Countdown host Richard Whitely.
The show is a mix of studio interviews and filmed reports like "Sexercises: Naked Aerobics" and "Men Who Prefer Small Breasts".
On a recent show Lilo asked a couple in studio to see how many Kama Sutra positions they could manage in the course of the programme. The couple could be seen panting in the background as Lilo sat on her plush red sofa getting anal sex tips from a porn star called Coco Brown.
Until recently the programme was broadcast live, leaving ample room for the unforseen. Like the time Lilo introduced the woman standing beside her as "an expert in sexual relaxation techniques". The woman promptly fainted.
"It appears our expert is a little too expert," said Lilo without blinking an eye, adding the by now legendary line: "Yes, my dears, such are the perils of live television."
The "sexpert" quiz segment gets two audience members to answer sex-related questions, removing an item of clothing for each wrong answer.
Elöd from Hungary was down to his boxer shorts when he got another question wrong on last week's show. An audible sigh went up from the studio audience when he peeled off the shorts to reveal . . . a jockstrap.
"Get that off too, that's cheating," cried Lilo. When Elöd refused, Lilo muttered: "Don't worry, I'll get that off in the dressing room later."
After eight years, Wahre Liebe shows no sign of flagging and still manages to make Channel 4's Eurotrash look like Songs of Praise.
"Germans have a reputation of being serious and dull," said Mr Axel Strelitz, producer of Wahre Liebe. "But this programme shows that we are actually quite tolerant and harder to shock."
