Nudism is a subject which remains a huge talking point today.
While some feel people should be free to express themselves and strip off in public places, others are very much against it and a BBC newsreel clip from the 1970s has captured the controversy it caused in the small Yorkshire seaside town of Hornsea.
BBC correspondent Bernard Falk went to the town in 1973 to chat to residents after councillors voted 8-3 in favour of letting naked sunbathers and swimmers enter the Yorkshire town's sands. It caused a considerable amount of outrage and disgust among some of the town's older folk, as Falk soon found out during an interview for the now defunct current affairs programme 'Nationwide'.
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To get into the spirit of things, Falk, who was ever the professional, even stripped off himself to deliver his broadcast from Hornsea - although he did put his clothes back on to interview the locals.
One woman who addressed the camera with a hard stare said she thought the idea was "objectionable". She said: "There's all this sex in every wretched thing. More and more of it."
"You'll get all the scoundrels out of hell coming," spat one man in a fedora. He added: "You'll bring all the riff-raff out of Hull, Leeds and all over into the town. And they'll be breaking in all over the place."
Another woman in a headscarf who didn't hold back told the camera it was "disgusting". With her eyes bulging she also added: "Shoot the ruddy sods!"
A woman, who identifies herself as Clr Mrs Johnson says: "This is a family resort. Why should the nudists come along and take over our beach? Why don't they find themselves at little plot, fence it in and cavort about to their hearts' content?"
Other people Falk interviews are indifferent to or in favour of opening a nudist beach in Hornsea.
"Do you reckon it's going to corrupt the minds of your kids to see naked people on the beach?" Falk asks facetiously.
The mum replies: "No, because mine are quite broad-minded... I expect a lot of children will have a few giggles about it."
And former Hornsea mayor Clr Sylvia Wood says: "I myself have sunbathed in the nude, not in this country admittedly... I can't see anything wrong with it at all.
"Overseas they think nothing of it," she adds.
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