The BBC should be ashamed of itself for screening such blatantly sexual images of Ross Poldark stripped to the waist in peak viewing time that left most British men feeling inadequate and with a huge dent to their self-esteem. It’s not as if I could change the channel because my wife wouldn’t let me.

“Stay there, wimp,” she said, “while I watch a real man.”

“But the makers of the drama are directly targeting individuals, aiming to make them feel physically inferior to the unrealistic body image presented,” I said.

But she wasn’t listening.

Yet thousands listened when people protested about a poster promoting fitness products that showed a girl in a bikini on the London underground. An online petition, that called for its removal, said: “Protein World is directly targeting individuals, aiming to make them feel physically inferior to the unrealistic body image of the bronzed model, in order to sell their product.”

Opponents said it was “bodyshaming”; Protein World said it was aspirational. It’s about time something was.

Obesity costs the nation £47 billion a year. The National Obesity campaign says: “Nearly a quarter of children leaving primary school are considered to be obese, as are one in four adults. More than 12,000 hospital appointments a year are now for obesity related conditions, and it’s been predicted that as many as half of us could be obese by 2050.”

In 2013, 67% of men and 57% of women were overweight.

Perhaps the debate over posters will encourage some to lose a few pounds to get on the right side of healthy. In the meantime, I’m still waiting for the petition to get Poldark to keep his shirt on when the next series comes round.