If by prude be meant a secretly vicious person who affects an excessive decorum, by all means let the prude disappear, even at the cost of some shamelessness.
I felt I was walking a fine line on that one—I wanted readers to see Johnny as sincere and sincerely in love, a straight shooter but not a tight-assed prude.
So I'm not sure how much of it is just the the Dutch being more normal and the British being excessively prude, but there probably is a big difference there.