UPDATE: now available online at http://www.channel4.com/programmes/kinky-britain/on-demand/62970-001 (at least in the UK)
Hi Everyone!
We are going to be on the telly! UK Channel 4, 10 pm on Monday 11th July.
I’m hoping that a few newcomers will find us this way- if you’re one of them, hello and welcome!
For that reason I’ve temporarily revamped the site index page (as you may have seen on your way in) to make it easy for people to find our stuff that was featured on the show. I’ll probably leave it like that for a week or two.
Check out the show if you get chance! We saw a rough cut which was pretty good- we’re just hoping Channel 4 haven’t added their trademark sneering voiceover in the mean-time… I’m going to be watching the show from behind the sofa, under a duvet with the sound turned down!
All the best
Hywel and Joceline… who is also using this as a push to “come out” completely- she’s modelled under three modelling names her whole career (Joceline, Ariel Anderssen and Amelia-Jane Rutherford) and hasn’t exactly gone to huge lengths to keep anything secret or separate, and Ariel and Amelia have taken on lives of their own as characters. Hywel took the decision to always appear under his real name right from the start of running the site, whereas models traditionally have stage names to keep a bit of distance (mostly for safety from rabid fans, in all honesty). But still, it’s a bit of a scary step to finally be on TV as ourselves!
Hi Amelia and Hywel, just watched you on Ch4 this evening and thought you were great.
I’m into spanking and have always greatly admired you Amelia Jane in your role as a spankee in the many different scenarios you tend to find yourself in.
You obviously love what you do and put 100 pc into everything.
It was interesting to hear you talk about your background and see you in RL as I’ve often wondered about this aspect of you as a person.
You both came across as a very loving couple and I wish you all the happiness and fulfilment of your dreams in the future.
Congratulations! I thought you both came over very well as two charming intelligent people who love what they do, and most importantly, each other. We may not have seen the last of you on the big(ger) screen!
As someone who has written a few kinky novels and plans to write more, I particularly appreciated the “Facts for Fiction” slides. I take it that that was the talk you gave to the Romance Novelists’ Association?
Much of it was stuff I already knew, but getting confirmation (and some new information) is good. The part about how 24/7 is hard to keep up over the long run especially resonated. The fictional worlds of my novels have “everyone does 24/7” and I do keep a world-building eye out for where to put in handwaves and how to set up patterns that can be kept up comfortably over the long term, even if they are not the most immediately exciting. And for a number of reasons I really want to avoid the common (and apparently popular) “I am a slave girl” limbo-dance where the bar the female character has to squirm under keeps getting set lower and lower.
Very well done, both of you…!! We thought the programme portrayed you very realistically – how you really are – and you both explained things well, too. No, there was no sneering voice over – so you can come out from behind that sofa now……!!
Lets hope the programme might open a few eyes, or deal with some misconceptions people have, about Kink & BDSM…?
By pure luck I zapped through right when it began. I thought, this should be fun to watch. I couldn’t believe it, when I saw you guys and was totally thrilled. Couldn’t think of any better people to advocate bondage/fetish to a broader audience. It was very nice to get to know you a little bit better too and get some background info. Great documentary.
Greetings from Switzerland.
Unfortunately we can not see this on demand outside the Uk. Is it to ge considered to place it on RE so that more people can en joy your performance on television. I do not know if it is possible, but if so it would be nice. Greetings from Holland.
I was VERY impressed with the intelligent case you made (unsurprisingly as you are probably the brainiest couple in kinky erotica) and by C4’s straightforward, non-sneering presentation (a little more surprising). Just the zort of thing we need. Thank you, Hywel and Joceline.
Well done, I really liked the documentary.
I hope it is useful to add some comments and personal experiences two weeks after the show went out. My wife and I were away from home on the day. We did record it and were pleased to find the recording worked and we could watch again at leisure.
We have also been able to work through everything added to the site Archives on 11th July and be reminded of all the super sets and videos featured in the show. I thought I had recognised lots but had to watch again to check them all. I am interested that there are so many exterior ones. Was that your (Hywel and Ariel’s) choice or did the documentary crew decide what they wanted?
We loved the show. We join with everyone else who has said Hywel and Joceline came across as genuine and decent people and were tremendous ambassadors for fetish and BDSM. The courage and intelligence you both showed were inspiring. My wife and I felt so proud to know you – as we always do.
We were relieved that the general tone was non-judgemental or positive. Even the music was upbeat and the introductory pictures of the Welsh mountains were bright and sunny. We know how much a documentary maker can use things like those to change the tone of a show without saying a word.
Yes, there was some suggestion that producers of fetish films were “making thousands” although the only figure I remember (relating to another producer) was £10,000 a year – not even a living wage. Things could have been a lot worse.
We may all hope the show left a positive impression on some viewers, although I suspect few watched it by accident or without any preconceived ideas. It is clear from the social media response that some people just enjoy being disgusted and/or being gratuitously offensive. It can’t be pleasant to be on the receiving end of that sort of thing even if it isn’t a surprise given the nature of social media. I congratulate Hywel and Ariel on putting up with it and even seeing the funny side as much as you did.
We can all only guess what, if any, will be the long term effect of the show. I hope there will be benefit from just having the programme out there at all. There are ample ill-thought negative views on kink so it is important that a rational positive view is also available. Also, it provides a “handle” for people who want to be a little more open about kink. So here I’ll be a little more open about what my wife and I have done recently.
• On the evening itself, with some foreboding, we asked my brother and his wife to watch the programme with us. They would not have done so otherwise. We have often talked about Hywel and Joss/Joceline and the programme was a chance to make it clear we know and respect who they are and what they do.
• A week later, we were showing some of our (vanilla) photographs around a party with neighbours. One asked if a particular model was “the lady who came to the restaurant” (we had taken Ariel/Joceline to our local restaurant when she shot with us in April). Our answer started, “no, but did you know that Joss was on the tele last week. …. ”
• For our most recent shoot, two days ago, for the first time, we openly wore our shirts identifying our “alternate identity” of the Fantasy Dabblers as we picked up the model from the local station. We also took her to some woodland in our village. There was no bondage but she was wearing a chain harness over a dress that was very definitely short for many in our village. I don’t know if we were consciously influenced by “Kinky Britain” but as we walked to the woods the discussion closely resembled what Hywel said during the “Lady of the Lake” shoot about anyone would realise it was a photoshoot.
Time will tell whether incidents like these make it easier for us or for other kinky people or whether they will just end up with us run out of the village and me being disowned by my family. We can only say that the programme, and Hywel and Joceline, have both given us courage and provided a vehicle for discussion. Thank you.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Glad the programme has been of some help in making you feel more confident with saying what you do! That’s the only way we’re going to change attitudes in this country I guess (which is why Joceline and I said yes to appearing on the show, as we’re already lucky enough to be “out”).
Exterior sets… mostly my choice as I wanted our stuff to look interesting and spectacular and not like it was shot in a suburban “dungeon”. But also the original brief of the show had been “non-nude fetishes” and we tend to shoot more clothed stuff than nude stuff outside.
By the way the cheery sunny opening shots of the Welsh countryside were outside the control of the programme makers- I shot them! (They asked me to do so as a favour as they’d not got wide countryside shots while they were here). So I wasn’t going to send them anything I didn’t think was pretty 🙂
The main thing I find annoying about the social media response is the “Yuck that’s disgusting!” brigade who clearly only tuned in to the show in an attempt to get indignant, whilst also watching the material of course. This is the sort of hypocrisy I remember very well from the 1980s with Mary Whitehouse and associated busybodies watching every bit of smut they could find, trying to ban it, but watching it themselves first of course because they were “pure and incorruptible”. I have the same fundamental revulsion for the BBFC. Must send an FOI request to them one of these days asking how many of their staff have had to be invalided out of post by becoming too depraved or corrupted to continue!
Cheers, Hywel
Thank you for the response, Hywel, and all your thoughts. I did wonder if the photographs were yours. They were remarkably good.
Yes, the hypocrisy of the “I was so disgusted I had to watch it all” brigade is awful. The current gang don’t even have Mary Whitehouse’s (dubious even then) claim that there was a limited choice of viewing.
I hope my wife and I will be able to continue talking more freely when we can. Whatever happens, it is good to know there are other decent, sensible, understanding friends out there. Thank you.