A ‘Penny Dreadful’ Sex Tour

A ‘Penny Dreadful’ Sex Tour: Where Victorians Picked Up Hookers and Bought Porn

By Tim Molloy 

Meet the first sexters in exclusive video from Showtime's new series

Showtime's upcoming “Penny Dreadful” shows us the strangest parts of Victorian London, but some things never change. In a new video from the production, star Reeve Carney shows us where Londoners cruised, picked up prostitutes, and bought their porn.

It's eye-opening. Carney, who is escorted (not that kind of escorted) by historian and author Matthew Sweet (not this Matthew Sweet) learns that Victorians sometimes commissioned their own private porn. That strikes Carney's interest, because he plays Dorian Gray, a character who knows a little something about portraits.

Other discoveries: One public park hosted regular bacchanals. Male and female prostitutes could ply their trade fairly openly at one theater. And if you think “sexting” is new, you've never heard of perverted telegraph boys.

Watch the video: