There's a deal of hypocrisy about, and never more so than when the old and influential seek to instruct the young as to how they shall conduct their lives. As to underage sex, at my age it is hardly a problem, and that specific age group hasn't turned me on since I ceased being one of them a long time ago.

However, it is not illegal to depict on television acts which in real life would be illegal -- programmes as various as "The Bill" and "Inspector Morse" would have serious problems on their hands if it was. And, unless the actors concerned (a) are actually underage and (b) are actually having sex to camera, what is being shown is not illegal. For severely practical reasons, that sort of thing doesn't actually happen on screen. To put it bluntly, most of us do not perform to camera, although private videoing of such activities is, I believe, on the increase. But after a morning's rehearsal and three retakes, even the most athletically competent of actors would begin to wilt.

Your correspondent does not appear to realise that the work of our greatest national playwright is a cornucopia of murder, regicide, incest and all sorts of sexual misdemeanours. But we name the guilty man -- step forward William Shakespeare! And Geoffrey Chaucer is almost as bad -- has he never read the Canterbury Tales?

Finally, as one whom your correspondent would doubtless write off as a "self-righteous do-gooder", I accept no responsibility whatever for the contents of soap operas or other TV programmes. I do not even watch them and have never written, scripted, acted in, or been associated with the production of the other.

Peter Johnston

Kendal Road

Bolton