The Year of the Sex Olympics (DVD)

In a future where society is split into the ‘low-drives’ and the ‘high-drives’, co-ordinator Ugo Priest discovers a new form of entertainment that is guaranteed to boost TV ratings and keep the low-drives in check…..reality television

In the near future, society is split into two strata: The ‘low-drives’ make up the zombie-like majority, mentally anaesthetized by an incessant diet of television, largely consisting of pornography. Television, and by extension the masses, is controlled by the ‘high-drives’, an educated class who remain servile through their perpetual quest for better ratings and audience subjugation. When the low-drives start to become increasingly uninterested in the programming on offer, co-ordinator Ugo Priest (Leonard Rossiter) ends up accidentally happening upon a new entertainment concept…..reality television.

First broadcast in 1968, The Year of the Sex Olympics is one of the most original pieces of television drama ever written and would foreshadow the likes of Big Brother and the phenomenon that is Love Island.