King of sex

So, farewell then, Zalman King, who has just died aged 69.

King (below), born Zalman Lefkovitz, was the uncrowned king - geddit? - of Hollywood softcore sex dating back more than 25 years to when he was co-writer and producer of the megahit Nine and a Half Weeks which encouraged the use of soft fruit in sexual foreplay.

The heavy breathing 1986 "adult" drama, co-starring Mickey Rourke, long before plastic surgery wrecked his looks, and Kim Basinger, gave King licence to ignite a whole raft of tasteful on-screen shagathons.

There was Wild Orchid, Wild Orchid 2, Two Moon Junction and Delta of Venus, to name but a few,  not to mention the phenomenally successful Red Shoe Diaries series which began life as a TV movie with a pre-X Files, David Duchovny - possibly honing his future Californication skills.

King worked right up to the very end with his latest film, Kamikaze Love, now in post-production awaiting posthumous release later this year.

It promises "a wealthy real estate developer who takes a young woman from an everyday mundane life and shows her a world of decadence and debauchery that pushes her sexual limits to the brink". Bonk on, Zalman.