Amanda Holden has claimed that “fear” is holding Britons back when it comes to their attitudes towards sex.
The Britain’s Got Talent judge, 52, is fronting a new show from September 18 on Sky History called Sex: A Bonkers History, alongside historian Dan Jones.
The pair will explore how attitudes towards sex and sexuality have evolved from the origination of the first contraceptive in ancient Egypt to swinging in 70s suburban Britain.
During a Q&A at a screening ahead of the show’s launch, the mother-of-two said she felt that historically there was “more freedoms and less judgement” than there is now.
She said despite society thinking we have come a long way, people were still “frightened to speak” about many things.
She explained: “Personally, I feel like even though we think we’re going forwards, I feel like we’re going backwards.
“I think when people say conversations are being started, they’re actually being stopped because I think lots of people are frightened to speak on every aspect of everything.”
Holden went on: “There’s so much to celebrate now, so much. And yet when you look back and you see, obviously there’s all the politics, everything else in all the other eras that we haven’t covered in.
“But I think there were loads more freedoms and less judgement then, than there is now. This is just a wheel that just keeps on turning.
“I think that’s the biggest lesson that we’ve learnt from this is that we’re just on that same wheel and we’re just coming into the next bit, and then we’re coming into the next bit.
“So every time we think we’ve gone forward we are always going to step back, and that’s true of absolutely every era that we’ve covered.”
