A TORY councillor has questioned a plan to boost tourism by highlighting links with hit Netflix show Sex Education which he dissmissed as ‘18 rated’.

Described as a ‘teen sex comedy drama’ the programme ran on Netflix for four seasons, from 2019 to 2023, and was set in the fictional town of Moordale but filmed around Monmouthshire

The hit series launched the career of Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa and also featured Gillian Anderson. Its links with Monmouthshire are highlighted in a glossy 35 page document that outlines how the county council will work with the local tourism industry, and others, to promote the county to visitors.

The brochure also states US beat poet Allen Ginsberg was motivated by Monmouthshire’s landscape ‘and a little LSD’ to write an ode to Wales and the county for The New Yorker magazine in the 1960s.

But when the tourism document was approved by the council’s Labour-led cabinet references to Sex Education caused Conservative opposition leader Richard John to raise an eyebrow.

The councillor for the Mitchell Troy and Trellech ward, near Monmouth, questioned if the series should have been included.

He asked Cllr Sara Burch, the cabinet member for tourism: “Do you think it’s appropriate to promote tourism in Monmouthshire with a TV series that has an age 18 rating?”

Labour’s Cllr Burch responded: “I think it’s appropriate to promote tourism in Monmouthshire with a series that has won multiple awards and has many millions of viewers globally who’ve chosen to watch it and have seen the Wye Valley and some of them may want to come and see it in person.

“I don’t think that’s an opportunity we can afford to ignore for our tourism businesses.”

The plan sets out how Monmouthshire will focus on attracting visitors from across the UK, boosting overnight accommodation, its potential for attracting niche visitors from cyclists and hikers to golfers and fans of fishing.