by MARTYN KENT and LOUISE COMPTON Sexual thrill-seekers are expected to flock to Radlett over the weekend in the wake of a TV documentary about swingers' parties.

The shocking revelation that the well-to-do village is part of the country's growing swinging scene emerged in a Channel Five documentary called Real Wife Swaps aired last Thursday.

Richard Stanley, 56, and Janet Harrison, 48, who appeared in the show, regularly host partner-swapping parties in their eight-bedroom Theobald Street mansion, which boasts a 50ft swimming pool and 500sq ft sex chamber.

"We felt that swinging deserved its first positive portrayal and three couples per hour are asking how they can join us as a result," said Mr Stanley, who runs his own management consultancy firm.

About 100 guests usually attend the parties, but more are expected tonight and tomorrow as the couple have received more than 150 letters, calls and emails since the programme was broadcast.

Unsurprisingly, not everyone appreciated the village gaining a nationwide reputation as a swinging hot spot.

Trainee priest Bridgit Adams, who delivered a sermon at St John's Church in Radlett on Sunday, described such parties as unhealthy'. "Marriage is like a cake and sex is the icing on the cake. If we make a nutritional comparison, just eating the icing is bad for you," she said.

"Couples should be putting all their efforts into their own marriages, rather than just thinking about sex and going to these parties to commit adultery."

Mr Stanley, who has sex with up nine people a night at his parties, hit back at the criticism. "We are churchgoers ourselves and do not do anything we are ashamed off our place isn't a brothel, for goodness sake," he said.

"To put it simply, swinging is recreational sex legitimately exercised. No one wants to eat in the same restaurant every night for the rest of their lives, and the same goes for sex.

"Most people solve the problem by going behind their partner's back. We have just confronted that and recognised that swinging is a solution."

The pair, who met at a swinging party, have been running the events in Radlett for ten years.

"Everyone in the village knows about our parties they are hardly a secret," said Mr Stanley.

Hertfordshire social services investigated the parties and unsuccessfully attempted to block the Channel Five programme, amid concerns that Ms Harrison's two teenage daughters, who live in the house, may be affected.

Police said the partner-swapping events did not break any law.