Television Reviews : Special Goes ‘Inside the Sexes’ Tonight on CBS

“A jug of wine, a loaf of bread and thou” . . . and a microcamera that may take the mystery out of romance, but leaves the wonder: That’s tonight’s CBS special “Inside the Sexes,” airing at 10 p.m. on channels 2 and 8, a jaw-dropping journey into the workings of sex.

Overseen by executive producer Alfred R. Kelman, co-producer of the superb CBS series “The Body Human” of a decade ago, “Inside the Sexes” uses up-to-the-minute technology to record internal human sexuality.

It’s a stunning kaleidoscope of film--shots taken inside the reproductive organs during sexual arousal, shots of a living fetus as it develops its own sexuality and of delicate microsurgery to correct sexual dysfunction.

It’s the poetry of blood vessels “finer than a spider’s web” and a personal saga of individuals struggling for biological normalcy.

The men and women we meet during this hour give all this astounding science an indelible human face. A man whose impotence might have been dismissed as a psychological symptom of a failed marriage and business by some doctors, has the problem surgically corrected. (Smokers take heed: “80% of impotent men are heavy smokers and over 40,” we’re told.)

A woman with an “out-of-kilter sex clock” has it put back in order by a remarkable surgeon, without having to undergo the hysterectomy recommended by other doctors.

The jubilation of these success stories is mixed with the tragedy of a healthy, vigorous man diagnosed as HIV positive, who knows that for him, there can be no safe sex.

Roy Scheider narrates this wondrous hour, marred puzzlingly by what seems to be a purely exploitative element--occasional close shots of an apparently nude couple engaging in sex play.

Come to think of it, maybe it’s not so puzzling. Isn’t this “Sweeps Week”?