Channel 4 goes under the covers

Channel 4 is to screen an interactive television event studying the state of the nation's collective sex life.

Britain in Bed will be a weapon in the channel's battle to restore ratings after recently suffering one of the worst weeks since its launch.

The programme claims to be "the most complete audit of the nation's sexuality, relationships and sexual habits". It will question participants on every aspect of their sex lives in an attempt to track changing bedroom habits. Channel 4 will unveil the results in a two-hour show in November.

Britain in Bed will also feature live experiments exploring the science of sexual attraction and video diaries exploring the intimate side of human relationships.

Peter Kellner, the chairman of YouGov, which conducted the sex poll on which the programme is based, described it as "a ground-breaking project".

Nav Raman, Channel 4's commissioning editor for the series, said: "People will doubtless continue to argue about the morality, wisdom and emotional and health implications of different lifestyles. Our aim is to ensure these debates are conducted on the basis of fact rather than guesswork. We want Channel 4 viewers to get involved and interact with the programme in a variety of ways before, during and after the event."

The programme will appear in the month that Channel 4 celebrates its 20th birthday and at a time when it has attracted criticism for being obsessed with sex. The channel has suffered from poor ratings and has decided to scrap the long-running soap Brookside.

During one week at the end of September, Channel 4's overall peak-time schedule was only just ahead of Channel 5, a 6.8 per cent viewer share compared with 6.6 per cent for its rival.

¿ Channel 4 is planning to increase understanding of Islam with a series of documentaries and live broadcasts from the world's largest pilgrimage, it announced yesterday.

The Haj is the most important date in the calendar for Muslims with millions flocking to Mecca every year.

A team from Channel 4 News will go to Saudi Arabia to record a series of programmes as well as providing live footage when the week-long Haj takes place in February.