Outrage as GMTV uses racy pole-dancers to 'model' tights

It was enough to have viewers choking on their breakfast muesli.

When GMTV presenter Lorraine Kelly announced a fashion feature on tights, it would have been fair to assume they would be displayed on a series of models parading on a catwalk.

Instead three pole dancers complete with their own portable pole demonstrated the legwear in increasingly graphic routines.
Pole position: a racy segment on this morning's GMTV has outraged family campaigners

Even the breakfast TV host seemed somewhat taken aback as the models, wearing corsets and thigh-skimming black skirts, stuck both legs in the air and writhed provocatively.

An open-mouthed Miss Kelly, 47, was left to splutter with raised eyebrows: "These are good aren't they?"

But the fashion item broadcast before 9am yesterday drew an angry response from family campaigners.

John Beyer, of the TV campaign group Mediawatch UK, said: "It is absolutely inappropriate for pole dancing to be promoted in a show of that kind at that time of day when children could be watching.

"As it was an item about tights, it seems the pole dancing was completely unnecessary.

"I wish ITV would concentrate on producing more wholesome television."

The three-minute feature at 8.50am was titled "glam up with this season's tights."

But Miss Kelly looked alarmed as, instead of the usual saunter down a catwalk, the pole was wheeled on and the suggestive dance routines began

As she watched from the sofa with fashion editor Erica Davies, she gasped: "I wish I could move like that. I'd be in hospital if I tried."

Gathering herself together at the end of the feature, she added hastily: "This is not naughty pole-dancing, this is pole-dancing for exercise."

But she admitted: "We did not concentrate on the tights. We were too busy looking at your great moves."

A GMTV spokeswoman said: "Pole-dancing is the latest keep fit craze and is great for upper body strength and toning so we thought it would be a fun way to illustrate these tights."
Kick start: the three-minute feature at 8.50am caught viewers by surprise

It is not the first time GMTV and its host have raised eyebrows.

Last week Miss Kelly's cleavage was pummelled by royal corsetiere June Kenton, who told her she had been wearing the wrong bra for years.

In September the programme was fined a record £2 million for fleecing viewers through phone-in competitions they had no chance of winning.

Media regulator Ofcom levied its highest-ever penalty after discovering the deception amounted to as much as £35 million over four years.
Outrage: one campaigner described the performance as 'completely unnecessary'