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| Tweet passion ... sex therapist Dr Peter Thraft's Twitter feed |
Tweeter behind earnest yet explicit sensation Dr Peter Thraft, who prompted speculation he could be Steve Coogan, revealed
"Make love tonight like you mean nothing to one another. Make it hard, make it fast, make it animal. (Afterwards hug each other)," writes sex therapist Dr Peter Thraft in what is fast becoming a Twitter sensation.
In another Twitter post the therapist implores prospective lovers: "Get to know your new partner. Spend an evening cleaning one another." Elsewhere he is more succinct: "Do not underestimate the female nipple."
However, while the good doctor is refreshingly open in discussing sexual matters, he refuses to tolerate any rude or "negative messages" from his growing army of fans and takes great pride in blocking troublesome correspondents with the firm refrain: "You are now blocked – Dr Peter Thraft".
The feed, which has been running since January purports to be written by the Leicester-based Thraft and the tone is one of a man who takes himself incredibly seriously, even when advising his readers that "slowly licking each other's face is an exciting way to begin foreplay". The author even goes to the lengths of carefully following leading golfers such as Paul Azinger and Nick Faldo to support his biographical premise that he is a "family man who loves golf".
However Thraft's growing band of followers have long suspected that his feeds are the work of a professional comedian because they are so amusing – solemnly mixing observations about golf and the weather with graphic descriptions of sex and combined with a paper-thin ego.
"The tweets are funny because Dr Peter Thraft is so fully alive and so realistic he almost could be real, and yet if he were real, he would only become funny, if at all, in very different way," writes the blogger privatematters4publicthings.
Even a thread on the website Mumsnet asks "Am I being unreasonable to find that Peter Thraft hilarious?" One contributor describes how the posts make them "howl" and another adds: "Please don't let him be made up! On the other hand, please let him be made up!"
Some of Thraft's more than 5,000 followers have noticed that his name resembles a rather neat if smutty amalgam of the words Thrust and Shaft and there has been speculation in comedy circles that it may be the work of Alan Partridge creator Steve Coogan.
The Guardian contacted Coogan – who immediately denied it, before setting the newspaper on the trail another comic. He speculated that it may "sound like something [comedian] Peter Serafinowicz might do".
But Serafinowicz also insists it is not him, along with many of the other likely suspects such as Robert Popper, the writer and producer who counts among his long list of credits the spoof TV comedies Bellamy's People and Look Around You. "Rude/sexual humour isn't my thing," he asserts.
Eventually, though dogged persistence by the Guardian had its own reward. We can reveal that the real author is in fact David Earl, a young comedian who counts Ricky Gervais among his friends and admirers.
Earl supported Ricky Gervais on warm up gigs for his 2009 Science tour and also made a much-praised cameo appearance in his feature film about suburban life in Reading, Cemetery Junction.
In the film Earl played his best known character, a cafe owner called Brian Gittins with pretensions to make it big who has been described by Guardian critic Brian Logan as "anti-comedy ... the gulf between a pathetic man's ambitions and his total lack of entertainment ability".
Gervais told the Guardian that while he doesn't Tweet and is not overly familiar with the Peter Thraft character he admires Earl enormously as "a very talented creator of characters".
"I've been a fan for many years," he said. "He supported me as Brian Gittins, he had a nice role in Cemetery Junction and his newest creation Steve Cumberland is a beautifully observed character. Modern and original."
Another fan of the Peter Thraft tweets is Suzi Godson, the sex therapist, journalist and author of the forthcoming book Sex Counsel. "I think it's brilliant – sex is a subject very much ripe for satire. We all need to lighten up about sex, it's taken far too seriously as this solemn thing. But domestic sex is actually pretty funny if you think about what happens underneath the average John Lewis duvet."
However, in spite of all the praise, Earl declined to comment on his new creation and according to his press representative, he has no current ambitions yet to take his online character from the internet to the stage or TV studio in spite of Thraft's suggestion in a tweet that "three dates are now confirmed for my tour. Details to follow. Very much looking forward to meeting some of you! – Dr Peter Thraft."
So, until Earl breaks his silence, the only word available is from his Twitter feed. Even if the advice is "slowly lick your partner's spine. From base to neck. Savour the sweat. Then kiss. Become 'one'."
