HE got pulses racing in Pride And Prejudice and in Bridget Jones’s Diary — now Colin Firth is planning to do it all again as Dr Sex.
The actor, who had viewers swooning as Mr Darcy in the BBC’s 1995 version of Jane Austen’s classic and in the hit 2001 rom-com opposite Renee Zellweger, is tackling the role of the man who revolutionised lovemaking around the globe with his landmark book.
Colin Firth will play The Joy Of Sex writer, Alex Comfort, in a new movie Credit: Getty
Firth as Mr Darcy after his lake swim in Pride And Prejudice Credit: BBC
Colin will play The Joy Of Sex author Dr Alex Comfort opposite Julianne Moore as Ruth Harris — the academic’s long-suffering wife whose marriage crumbled after publication of the erotic manual in 1972.
Joining them on the cast list is Laura Linney as Dr Comfort’s mistress Jane Henderson.
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She is widely credited for his personal sexual awakening that inspired the book.
The seismic shift in the physician’s personal life is perhaps hinted at in The Joy Of Sex, where he wrote: “If you don’t love your body, change your mind; if your partner doesn’t love your body, change your partner.”
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The as-yet-unnamed drama, which has just started filming, will chronicle the life of a man who started off as a stuffy academic from North London.
It will also examine how he ended up living in an American nudist colony and became one of the most famous men on the planet and a revered figure for those embracing the era of free love.
Which was quite a surprise given that, by the time The Joy Of Sex was published, he was already well into his fifties.
But Dr Comfort once said: “The things that stop you having sex with age are exactly the same as those that stop you riding a bicycle.
“People stop having sex the way they stop riding bicycles, because it looks silly.”
But Dr Comfort never felt appearance should get in the way of sexual attractiveness.
It certainly never stopped him from becoming Dr Sex. When he became famous, most observers remarked on the fact that he looked like the most unlikely inspiration for passionate encounters.
One journalist wrote: “With his white hair and small build, he looks rather like a leprechaun.”
Another described the sexpert as being “shaped like a sack of dog food with long hair”.
But if his looks raised eyebrows, his background makes his sex symbol status even more unlikely.
Born in 1920, he became a doctor after studying at the prestigious Highgate School in London and Cambridge University — though his personal passion, up to that point, was molluscs and fossils.
It was as a teenager, some believe, that he had a life-changing experience that may have driven him to become obsessed with finding his way into women’s affections.
Firth in A Single Man with Julianne Moore, his co-star in the new movie Credit: Handout
The sexpert and controversial author Dr Comfort Credit: Getty
In 1935, while trying to make a firework to mark the silver jubilee of King George V, he blew much of his left hand off.
In Polymath, his biography of Dr Comfort, writer Eric Laursen said: “The accident — sudden, shocking, agonising — changed Alex’s life forever. His absorption in learning and his conspicuous evangelicalism already set him apart from many of the other boys at Highgate.
“Now the difference was physical as well. Why on earth would any woman find him attractive? He had to learn not to draw attention to his hand, lest it be the only thing people noticed about him.”
Nevertheless he went on to marry his first wife, Ruth, in 1943 and they had a son, Nicholas.
But Ruth was described, in contrast to Dr Comfort himself, as being “serene and reserved”.
By 1963, he was having an affair with her best friend, Jane, as well as another lover — although she doesn’t seem to have figured as strongly in his life.
For almost a decade, he juggled these women as well as a career in academia and medicine.
In an interview, Dr Comfort once said: “For a long time, I was living with two women. It didn’t work very well, they were both in eruption the whole time.
Julianne Moore will star as Ruth Harris in the movie Credit: Getty
Laura Linney will appear in the movie Credit: Getty
“I lived in two different houses. I used to tootle over every morning and pick up Wife No2 and take her to work. I don’t recommend it.
“I was trying to be a decent husband to both of them, and I couldn’t.
“I could have left Ruth, I suppose, but I didn’t like to leave her because Nicholas was still at school.
“It was only latterly, toward the end of the period, that it became possible for me to settle it up by divorcing Wife No 1 and marrying Wife No 2.”
But it wasn’t just his relationship with Jane that coloured Dr Comfort’s mind during this time. It was also the wider hippy movement which led to him becoming an anarchist and backing the formation of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
And, of course, the hippies wanted to throw off the shackles of conservative society, which he approved of on every level.
Jane was of a similar mindset and was described as being “sexually alive and emotionally fragile”.
By 1973, they had moved to the Sandstone Retreat, a clothing-optional community in California that would today be described as ‘sex positive’.
Dr Comfort wrote: ‘If you don’t love your body, change your mind; if your partner doesn’t love your body, change your partner’ Credit: Getty
When The Joy Of Sex was published in 1972, nothing like it had ever been seen before Credit: Alamy
In a newspaper opinion piece at the time, Dr Comfort wrote: “For people like me, it’s far, far better to be surrounded by freaks than by squares.”
In a sign of how open-minded the lifestyle was in Sandstone, Dr Comfort’s 1974 sequel More Joy Of Sex featured new sections on couple- sharing, swinging and threesomes.
But by 1985, Jane had tired of the life-style and the couple moved back to the UK to live in Kent.
In the final 15 years of his life, Dr Comfort came to begrudge the title of Dr Sex because the focus on his famous books, as well as his lifestyle, overshadowed his many other academic achievements.
Praising the benefit of mutual pleasure and adventurous positions, it sold more than 12million copies, and became a hit around the globeCredit: Refer to Source
MANUAL HIT No1 POSITION
WHEN The Joy Of Sex was published in 1972, nothing like it had ever been seen before.
Praising the benefit of mutual pleasure and adventurous positions, it sold more than 12million copies, and became a hit around the globe.
The title was a twist on The Joy Of Cooking, offering “a gourmet guide to lovemaking” with elements that could be divided into starters, mains and desserts.
It also made stars out of illustrator Charles Raymond and his wife Edeltraud – the couple who were pictured adopting the many positions featured in the book.
But the pair had to perform under pressure, often frantically adopting and holding different positions in the limited time they had because power cuts due to the miners’ strike at the time meant they could only be drawn in daylight.
Their poses helped to usher in a more liberal attitude to nudity, sexuality and gender equality.
The book brought a sea change in how sex was treated as previously, it had been discussed mainly in biological terms.
The lovemaking manual was followed by More Joy Of Sex in 1974 and The New Joy Of Sex in 1991.
He once snapped when questioned constantly on The Joy Of Sex: “I want you to understand, this is not the only book I’ve ever written. It’s just the only one I managed to sell.”
His golden goose, he concluded, had become “a bit of an albatross”.
