Regular listeners to Radio 4 will know that Jolyon Jenkins is the go-to-guy for those quirky subjects which require intelligence and chutzpah in equal measure.

Having a voice that blends earnestness with wry scepticism is an added bonus.

Jenkins needed all these traits in Out Of The Ordinary (Monday, BBC Radio 4, 11am), a new series promising documentary excursions into what the Beeb calls "leftfield" and which started with our intrepid reporter being initiated into that secret brotherhood of men who spend their lives - or their lunch hours and Saturday afternoons, anyway - trying to pick up women using techniques learned from characters such as Andy Moore (or Andy Yosha as he calls himself "professionally", in his role as a master pick-up artist or PUA).

Moore/Yosha is a devotee of The Game, Neil Strauss's 2005 bestseller about PUAs, who organise themselves into underground societies (or "lairs") with their own jargon - "doing a set", "negging" - and codes of conduct.

"I read it and it was like a paradigm shift for me," he said, as Jenkins prepared to take part in a £600 weekend boot camp in which he would learn how to apply these techniques.

The course, by the way, is called Day Game and its contention is that women can be "gamed" on the street.

Done right, this will result in "success", which means sex.

"They want a man to take control.

It's biology. It's how things work," said Moore/Yosha.

To Jenkins it was all deeply misogynistic, as it probably appears to most right-thinking adults.

"Sleazy, no question," he added.

As it turned out, the prey seemed to fare rather better than the hunters.

Although happy to talk to Jenkins, the wannabe PUAs pretty soon revealed themselves to suffer from extremely low self-esteem, a worrying fondness for computer games and either a crushing lack of self-confidence or an emotional age of 14.

A few of them probably had the set.

Interviewing a selection of women after they had been "gamed", however, Jenkins heard (through laughter) phrases such as "scruffy-looking guy", "loitering" and "weird questions".

Some women who were stopped were irritated.

One just asked "Have you read The Game?" and walked on.

So much for the secret brotherhood.

So much for control.