A sexy and humorous romp, looking at the work of a pioneering, brave but sometimes deeply flawed group of scientists who have been peering into our sex lives for the past 100 years.

Over the course of three episodes, The Sex Researchers investigate how science has tried to understand how the opposite sex works and whether men and women are turned on in different ways. In the 50’s Gynaecologist Bill Masters teamed up with his secretary Virginia Johnson to take a more rigorous look, together they recorded 10,000 orgasms in their laboratory.

We examine whether science helps us to have better sex and look back at science’s sometimes unhealthy obsession with sex. From Dr Kellogg who produced his famously bland breakfast cereals to reduce libido to try and stop boys masturbating to the strange work of Wilhem Reich who became convinced that he could measure a new form of energy called ‘Orgon’ created by the power of the orgasm. We also look at the highly regarded work of Serge Voronoff who rejuvenated old men by surgically attaching slivers of monkey testicles to their scrotums.

Science is now a little more successful when it comes to interfering with our sex lives. Viagra was a medical intervention that worked. But its popularity could be having some undesirable effects. The Sex Researchers look at a new study that shows how unprescribed, recreational use of Viagra could in fact be giving men impotence problems when they didn’t have them before.

There are helpful tips too about finding the perfect sex partner and on what is considered to be ‘normal.’ Homosexuality in particular has moved from being a criminal offence to an accepted part of human sexuality. And the sex researchers try to find out if gay men are normal – to trying to find out why they’re different. One recent study is aiming to work out if it really is possible to pick out a gay man in a crowd – does the ‘gaydar’ really exist?