BBC4 to get raunchy for Mills & Boon's 100th

The 90-minute Consuming Passions drama is being written by Emma Frost (Shameless, Casualty, Doctors) and will follow three interlinked stories set in different time periods in the same way as the Nicole Kidman film The Hours.

One of the stories will follow Mary Boon (played by Jodie Whittaker) whose wheeler-dealer husband Charles Boon (Daniel Mays) co-founded Mills & Boon in 1908.

“Whilst their book business fought to be original and successful in 1908 London, at home a very different battle raged between Mary and Charles. A battle fought in the bedroom, which would define the course of publishing history as Mills & Boon decide to take a chance on their low-brow, high-romance genre,” the BBC said.

The second story is set in the 1970's and follows fictional spinster author Janet Bottomley (Olivia Colman) as she falls in love with her mother's dashing doctor (Patrick Baladi) and is inspired by the relationship to write the first book in Mills & Boon's popular Medical Romance series.

The Mills & Boon story is brought up to date in the final episode, about Kirstie (casting to be confirmed), a university lecturer in a stagnating relationship who is distracted by a “swarthy young stranger” played by OB Fabergenie.

Ben Stephenson, head of drama commissioning, said: “Interweaving the stories of three very different women, Consuming Passion will shed light on the impact and influence the books had on women's lives over the last century.”

The drama is being produced for BBC drama by Ben Evans, who also put together BBC4's The Curse of Comedy season, including The Curse of Steptoe which won the channel's highest ever ratings.

He said: “It's a celebration as well as a commemoration of this extremely successful publisher. It references Mills & Boon novels in the way that they're structured and the style of their romantic leads.”

The drama will tie in with a documentary, How to Write a Mills & Boon, which looks at the strict structural guidelines that the publisher issues for its writers.

The programme will be fronted by author Stella Duffy and will be screened on BBC4's Time Shift strand. It is being produced by BBC Bristol with Claire Martin as executive producer.

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