We meet the young single men and women for whom the war brought unexpected opportunities for brief encounters, flings and sexual adventure. Many began the war as innocent virgins. But the danger of death inspired a 'live for today' attitude and sexual liberation. Young women experimented with different sexual partners and discovered the joy of the orgasm for the first time.
Married women fell in love and had secret affairs while their husbands were away serving in the forces. Soldiers had less opportunity for relationships and were more likely to visit prostitutes. When the men returned home, some husbands and wives formed pacts where they agreed never to talk about what had gone on - and their marriages often survived. For many others, there was a more dramatic outcome.
Four extraordinary women reveal the passion and the pain they went through in epic romances with Allied servicemen. During the war, over two million soldiers from the four corners of the world descended on Britain, most of them eager for sexual adventure. The glamour and charm of men from countries like Canada, New Zealand, Belgium and the United States proved irresistible to many local girls. In the relationships that followed, some girls found true love while others simply found heartbreak. Many have lived with the consequences up to the present day.
This episode reveals the stories of those who broke the biggest wartime taboo of all - forming a loving and sexual relationship with a German. These romances were highly dangerous; those involved could face the death penalty. We reveal three extraordinary stories: a young woman on the Channel Islands who fell in love with a German soldier and had his illegitimate baby; a farmer's wife who had a secret affair with a German POW and passed his baby off as her husband's; and a British POW whose German girlfriend helped him to escape and return home.
In the final programme, we draw together the big themes of the series: sex with strangers, love affairs with Allied servicemen, secret affairs between married men and women, and sleeping with the enemy. Many old taboos were broken and the Victorian sexual attitudes which had held sway when war began lost their hold on the majority of the population. It all added up to Britain's first sexual revolution, something of an 'undressed' rehearsal for the much bigger sexual revolution that would come in the 1960s.