Perhaps naively, we think of the BBC as this model of quality television, proof that state-funded media does the body good. So it was a bit of a shock that we discovered the Beeb also produced four seasons of Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents, a reality TV show that follows teens on their first holidays abroad without their parents. The parents are actually secretly following their every move with the help of the BBC crew and, at one point, kids and parents are reunited for a bit of on-camera drama.

 

After various European locations from Val d'Isere to Ibiza, the show’s latest season, which just began airing, is set in Thailand. Cue the tagline: “Where booze comes in buckets, boys will be boys, and girls may be boys, too.”

 

You can watch it all on YouTube, or just check out select clips on www.bbc.co.uk, such as, “A brief encounter with a prostitute,” “Erman eats a scorpion” or “Daniel dresses up as a lady boy” (well, a drag queen actually, but this clearly isn’t a program on gender studies). 

 

Before you get outraged about this clichéd portrayal of Thailand, it’s really more of an ethnographic study of the teenage British male. See them pass out drunk by 5pm, whip out their cocks to general indifference, plan to “tag team a lady boy” or calculate that “if I can fit in two drinking sessions a day, it’s like I’ve had 14 nights out.”