Wank Week

Wank Week was a controversial season of television programming that was due to be broadcast in the United Kingdom by Channel 4, expected to consist of a series of three documentary programmes about masturbation.

[3] In the United Kingdom, the 11pm slot is considered post-watershed, defined by the regulator Ofcom in the Broadcasting Code as later than 9pm (although transition to more adult material "must not be unduly abrupt at the watershed or after the time when children are particularly likely to be listening" according to section 1.6).

A press release from Zig-Zag, the independent production company behind the recording of the event, promised that the film would reveal "if the only things allowed to be stiff in Britain are upper lips".

[8] Wank Week was criticised in the prestigious James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the 2006 Edinburgh International Television Festival on 25 August, only a month after Channel 4's initial announcement.

Isaacs argued that Channel 4's increased commercialisation led to a targeting of the 16- to 34-year-old audience, and the subsequent "obsession with adolescent transgression and sex" could be seen in programming such as Designer Vaginas, The World's Biggest Penis and Wank Week.

[13] Although these public attacks led to reports of concern in Channel 4 management, postponement of Wank Week did not take place until early February 2007, only a month before its planned screening.