After it was shown in 1989, the series has never been broadcast by the BBC since, and it has to date not been released on DVD or Blu-ray.
A press screening on 22 November of the series provoked negative responses in several of the journalists and reviewers present. Its nudity and sex was described in previews as "soft porn" and "a simple turn-on for male viewers". Some journalists, mostly female, used their reports as excuses to attack writer and director Dennis Potter; in City Limits Deborah Orr described him as "unpleasant", Maria Lexton condemned him in Time Out as "a very sick man...[with a] twisted attitude to women and fucking" and in the Evening Standard he was dismissed as "a dirty old man." The Daily Mirror created a new nickname for Potter when its front page headline asked, "All clever stuff... Or just Dirty, Den?" Sally Payne summed up the tension between Potter's intentions and their execution in the Sunday Times, "My gut feeling was distinct unease which verged on outrage the more I thought about it. I became convinced that Potter was guilty of the crime he was condemning", i.e. the objectification of "young and attractive women as consumer goods in a way that brutalizes both sexes."
In a 2013 interview, Gina Bellman said she was never comfortable with being a "sex symbol" and the attention this role caused because of her nudity and the character she played. To this day she tries to forget it and avoid discussing it.