Allen defends C4 Drugs Live show

16 July 2012 Last updated at 09:36 ET

Keith Allen has defended a forthcoming Channel 4 series in which he is filmed taking drugs.

The musician and actor took MDMA, the pure form of ecstasy, for the upcoming documentary to examine its effects.

Health campaigners said the show ran the risk of being "voyeuristic" and "unrepresentative".

But the 59-year-old actor and musician said the documentary was designed as a "forensic analysis" into the physical and psychological effects of drugs.

Called Drugs Live, the "radical" four-part series aims to examine the claims and counterclaims made about recreational drugs by testing them in a monitored environment.

TV bosses at Channel 4 said the series, to be broadcast in the autumn, would "provide viewers with unmediated access to a live drug trial".

Speaking on ITV 1's This Morning, Allen said it was "insane" to suggest the show glamorised drug use.

"If you think that I'm glamorising the taking of drugs by spending an hour and 20 minutes for two consecutive Mondays in an MRI scanning machine, then you're insane.

We wouldn't want anyone to come away from the programme thinking that MDMA is benign.

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Allen defends C4 Drugs Live show