Undeniably eye-popping: BBC2’s Louis Theroux – Selling Sex reviewed

Victoria, a single mother in her early thirties, is getting her children ready for school — ensuring an equitable distribution of toast and issuing a series of determinedly patient instructions. (‘Listen to Mummy, you need to put your socks on.’) Once they’re gone, she then heads to a hotel to meet the first man that day who’ll be paying her £250 for sex. ‘It’s the perfect job for me,’ she explains cheerfully. ‘Very flexible.’

Victoria was one of three women featured in Louis Theroux: Selling Sex (BBC2, Sunday) for which Louis furrowed his familiar brow, adopted his finely honed bemused expression and set off to investigate transactional sex in digital-age Britain. Victoria, for example, advertises on the website AdultWork, where her clients can rate her TripAdvisor-style. (‘A splendidly satisfactory young lady,’ wrote one, rather quaintly.) They can also read her self-description as both ‘a classy lady’ and ‘the filthiest lady you would ever meet’. ‘The yin and the yang. I like it,’ commented Louis — as ever, leaving us unsure as to whether he was being sincere, polite or mocking. (My guess is that by now he doesn’t know either.)

Newer to the work was Ashleigh, a 23-year-old student who naturally feels ‘empowered’ by the job. From her, we learned that AdultWork also permits escorts to rate clients. Happily, she soon found one much admired for the size of his penis, and went to his Fulham flat, where Louis loitered outside for an hour, agonising further as to whether this can ever be a ‘healthy’ way to earn a living.

The third woman, Caroline, has been married to Graham for 44 years — although only for the past few of them has she been a prostitute, with Graham’s full blessing.