First images of Colin Firth, Laura Linney and Julianne Moore playing the 'throuple' who inspired bestselling lovemaking manual The Joy of Sex

By KATIE HIND, CONSULTANT EDITOR SHOWBUSINESS Published: 00:01, 9 August 2026 | Updated: 00:06, 9 August 2026 To date, his most risque on-screen moment was when his shirt got drenched in the Pemberley pond in the BBC's adaptation of Pride And Prejudice, setting Elizabeth Bennet's heart aflutter. Colin Firth's portrayal of the handsome Mr Darcy transformed him into a heart-throb. But at the age of 65, Firth is filming his steamiest role yet – as Dr Alex Comfort, the British author of the 1972 love-making manual The Joy Of Sex. Not only was the late physician the brains behind the book, he was also one third of possibly the first known 'throuple', enjoying an open marriage. While he was married to wife Ruth, Dr Comfort was also intimately involved with best friend Jane Henderson from Cambridge University. And now the astonishing story is being made into a film under the title Comfort And Joy, which is being directed by Bridget Jones director Sharon Maguire. Filming began last week for the movie which will feature Firth alongside his Love Actually co-star Laura Linney, 62, who plays Ruth. The Comforts married in 1943, three years before she gave birth to their son Nicholas. Hollywood star Julianne Moore, 65, portrays Jane, a librarian who became Comfort's lover and collaborator in cataloguing the choreography of their sexual adventures. Discussions for the movie began nine years ago. Comfort's son Nicholas, a former government special adviser and journalist who holds the rights for the film, has given it his blessing and is acting as a consultant. Colin Firth, 65 (pictured) is starring as Dr. Alex Comfort, the physician behind the 1972 bestselling manual The Joy Of Sex, in a new film directed by Sharon Maguire (Bridget Jones) Firth stars alongside Laura Linney (R) as Comfort's wife, Ruth, and Julianne Moore (L) as his Cambridge friend, mistress, and collaborator, Jane Henderson He has been on set for much of the filming so far and told The Mail on Sunday: 'I've enjoyed every minute of it.' And so it seems have Firth and his co-stars. Our exclusive pictures show the actors recording scenes of a trip the trio made to India in 1962 before Comfort published an English version of the medieval Indian erotic text The Ratirahasya under the English title The Koka Shastra. Rather than India, Firth, Linney and Moore filmed the scenes outside a Hindu temple in Wembley, north-west London. Bridget Jones star Firth wore a panama while the two women were in Sixties fashion. Firth – making hand gestures which movie insiders say are him joking about 'the size of something' – is seen in deep conversation with Linney. She is also seen looking a little downbeat alongside Moore. And perhaps that is little surprise: While Alex Comfort enjoyed having the two women as lovers, they were unhappy in the love triangle which inspired The Joy Of Sex. The sex manual is structured like a cookbook with sections labelled 'starters', 'main courses' and 'left–overs'. It combined an open, sex-positive tone of writing with detailed line drawings and colour paintings of a man and woman engaged in sexual activity. The book – years ahead of its time – features oral sex and exotic sex positions as well as more outlandish practices such as sexual bondage and swinging. For many years, while Comfort conducted his practical research for the book with mistress Jane in his north London home, he divided his time between the two women. He would spend Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with Jane and the other four days with Ruth. He and Jane, then in their 50s, took polaroids of their bedroom exploits. Comfort had hoped that they would be used for his book but the publishers were unimpressed with their snaps. And photographs of explicit acts at the time crossed the line into obscenity and pornography. Published in 1972, The Joy Of Sex sold over 12 million copies worldwide and spent over 300 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list Dr Alex Comfort, author of 'The Joy of Sex', pictured in 1959 Comfort lived in an open marriage, dividing his time between Ruth and Jane. While he enjoyed the arrangement, both women were unhappy in the love triangle So instead, the publishers commissioned artists to illustrate the sexual shenanigans, and employed an art director, Peter Kindersley. The aim was to have both colour and black-and-white drawings, tasteful images which would be based on photographs. But they struggled to find anyone who would agree to pose and so employed pornographic models in Soho. But the models cheekily put their prices up by about £100 halfway through the job. And they also pouted too much. The project was about to be abandoned when one of the illustrators, Charles Raymond, then in his early 40s, said he and his German wife Edeltraud would pose. It was something of a departure for Raymond. He was instead well known for botanical paintings, and illustrated for The Reader's Digest Association, plus magazines such as Woman's Mirror and Homes and Gardens. He also produced wallpaper and fabric designs for Edinburgh Weavers and Sanderson. Raymond and his wife had to act out dozens of positions that Comfort had given them. Chris Foss, overseer of the black-and-white illustrations, took the photos in a hectic two-day-long photoshoot. After it was published in 1972, The Joy Of Sex was a global success, selling 12million copies across the world, including five million in the US. It spent more than 300 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. After years working in medicine Comfort, who had studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, in the late 1930s, was transformed into a very wealthy author. He decided to divorce Ruth in 1973, just a year after the book was published, and then married Jane. He was estranged from his only child Nicholas for many years, with their relationship rekindled only when he suffered a stroke in 1991 which left him unable to speak. His illness coincided with Jane's death the same year. Comfort died in 2000 aged 80 after a cerebral haemorrhage. Ruth died that year too.