''Tofu'' is a 2015 British online documentary series created by
Russell T Davies
Stephen Russell Davies (born 27 April 1963), better known as Russell T Davies, is a Welsh screenwriter and television producer whose works include ''Queer as Folk'', ''The Second Coming'', '' Casanova'', the 2005 revival of the BBC One scien ...
and presented by journalist and YouTube host Benjamin Cook, available on
All 4
All 4 is a video on demand service from the Channel Four Television Corporation, free of charge for most content and funded by advertising. The service is available in the UK and Ireland; viewers are not required to have a TV licence—requir ...
,
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
's video-on-demand service. The sister series to Channel 4's ''
Cucumber
Cucumber (''Cucumis sativus'') is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the Cucurbitaceae family that bears usually cylindrical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables.E4's ''
Banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry (botany), berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, Cooking banana, bananas used for ...
'', ''Tofu'' is a documentary series that focuses on a range of sex attitudes in the twenty-first century from the viewpoint of everyday people. Like ''Cucumber'' and ''Banana'', the name of the series refers to the same urological scale of hardness of the
male erection
An erection (clinically: penile erection or penile tumescence) is a physiological phenomenon in which the penis becomes firm, engorged, and enlarged. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, vascular, a ...
which starts at ''tofu'', goes through ''peeled banana'' and ends at ''cucumber'' from a European study that inspired Davies.
Development
''Tofu'' was commissioned in 2013 as a sister show to Davies' dramas ''Cucumber'' and ''Banana''. In development since 2006, ''Cucumber'' was announced along with companion series ''
Banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry (botany), berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, Cooking banana, bananas used for ...
'', and web series ''Tofu'' in November 2013. The titles of all three shows come from a scientific study into the
male erection
An erection (clinically: penile erection or penile tumescence) is a physiological phenomenon in which the penis becomes firm, engorged, and enlarged. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, vascular, a ...
which divided the hardness of the men's erections into a
hardness scale
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness () is a qualitative ordinal scale, from 1 to 10, characterizing scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of harder material to scratch softer material.
The scale was introduced in 1812 by the ...
consisting of ''tofu'', ''peeled banana'', ''banana'', and ''cucumber''; upon reading the study, Davies remarked that "right there and then, I knew I had my drama".
Tofu
Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super fi ...
is a food made by
coagulating
Coagulation, also known as clotting, is the process by which blood changes from a liquid to a gel, forming a blood clot. It potentially results in hemostasis, the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel, followed by repair. The mechanism o ...
soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks in gradations of soft, firm, or extra firm.
Described by the channel as an "anarchic and entertaining look at sex", ''Tofu'' explores issues that arise in ''Cucumber'' and ''Banana'' through interviews with actors for both shows and the public, such as
one-night stands
A one-night stand or one-night sex is a single sexual encounter in which there is an expectation that there shall be no further relations between the sexual participants. It draws its name from the common practice of a one-night stand, a single ...
organised through apps like
Grindr
Grindr () is a location-based social networking and online dating application targeted towards members of the gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community.
It was one of the first geosocial apps for gay men when it launched in March 2009 a ...
and sexual taboos. Requests for participants were issued in July 2014 and were open to anyone over eighteen, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or sexual history; interested parties were asked to send a 90-second video to producers
Red Production Company
Red Production Company is a British independent television production company owned by StudioCanal.
Background
Red Production Company was formed in 1998 by Nicola Shindler, a television producer who had worked on '' Our Friends in the North' ...
describing their "best sexcapade".
Episodes
Journalist and YouTuber Benjamin Cook hosts everyday people discussing a variety of attitudes towards sex. ''I'm With Geek'' points out that although not tied to the narrative of ''Cucumber'' and ''Banana'', the interviewees include the show's cast and the program discusses sex "with as much frankness as the show depicts it". ''Tofu'' offers an "honest, non-judgmental and entertaining view of sex and sexuality in the same way that Cook’s 'Becoming Youtube' did for the Youtube community."
Reception
As a documentary series, ''Tofu'' is seen as the odd-one-out of the triptych. Reviewing the first episode, Oli Dowdeswell of ''SoSoGay'' described the show as "an interesting concept, but one that doesn't work 100% of the time". Dowdeswell praised the interview segments of the episode, but was less positive about the dramatised "mini-''
Black Mirror
''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with science fiction technology—a type of speculative ficti ...
''" vignette, which he felt was out of place in a documentary series.
Sam Wollaston in ''The Guardian'' felt that even though the shows were "Gloriously, explicitly, triumphantly, cucumberly. Gay to the core." he didn't feel left out or see the subjects irrelevant; he also found ''Tofu'' "cum-in-your-face frank".