LONDON – Touting a commitment to encouraging “an open and adult conversation about sex,” UK mainstream broadcaster Channel 4 plans to air a one-hour special called Sex Box beginning at 10 p.m. Oct. 7.

According to the promotional material, the show will present three couples — gay and straight — who will have sex in a TV studio and then discuss what happened and what didn’t with the program’s host and a live studio audience. “Agony aunt” Mariella Frostrup will host the program, which also will include commentary and questions from a panel of experts: internationally syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage, sex body language and relationship expert Tracey Cox, and psychotherapist, broadcaster and author Phillip Hodson.

“The explosion of online pornography is one of the stories of our time, and this absolutely intends to be an open, adult, quite deep conversation about sex,” Ralph Lee, Channel 4’s head of factual programming, told The Guardian.

Although the couples will have sex on-stage, they will do so in an opaque, soundproof room. What happens in the “sex box” will stay in the sex box, broadcast-wise: None of the action will be seen on-air. However the in-studio and at-home audiences will meet the couples before and after they adjourn to the box.

The show has been pre-recorded, allowing the naughty bits to be edited out while still filling an hour’s time slot, Lee assured.

“Strangely it’s quite a chaste program,” Lee told The Guardian. “There’s no sex in it.”

Channel 4’s special programming block, called Campaign for Live Sex, also will feature specials including The Week the Women Came (about women seeking better sex) and Date My Porn Star, during which three UK porno fans will meet the adult stars of their wet dreams.

Post-broadcast, the shows will join the network’s free online lineup on 4 on Demand. The watch-at-will programming includes Bi Curious Me, My Phone Sex Secrets, Naked Calendars, Sex Toy Stories, More Sex Please, We’re British and The Joys of Teen Sex. Some of the shows include a warning: “full frontal nudity, graphic sexual content and strong language from the start and throughout.”

According to Channel 4, the purpose of the programming is to “reclaim sex from pornography.” Considering the volume of sex-related material on the broadcaster’s schedule, perhaps sex needs to be reclaimed not from pornography but from Channel 4.

Image: From left, Phillip Hodson, Tracey Cox, Dan Savage and Mariella Frostrup on the set of Sex Box.