Celebrity Big Brother rapped for 'inappropriately scheduled' sex-themed episode

Celebrity Big Brother has been found to have breached the broadcasting code with an episode in which housemates talked about their sex lives and made rude shapes out of dough.

Ofcom received five complaints about the programme broadcast on a Sunday, when children were watching.

The watchdog said that the episode - a repeat of an episode originally broadcast late at night - was 'not appropriately scheduled'.

The episode included Ollie Locke, Luisa Zissman (pictured) and Lee Ryan making sexual references while making dough balls in the kitchen, and later on, housemates Liz Jones, Jim Davidson, Linda Nolan, Luisa, Ollie, Sam Faiers and Dappy sitting on a sofa talking about their sex lives.

Channel Five said that the Code does not prohibit discussions on sexual matters before the watershed.

Ofcom said that 8,800 viewers of the Sunday instalment were aged four to nine years old.

It said that the 'cumulative effect of ... the use of sexual innuendos ... together with the frank, discussions on the topic of sexual experiences resulted in an inappropriate and prominent sexual theme and adult tone.'

– Press Association

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.