Mills & Boons goes from romantic to raunchy

London: The BBC channel has announced its plans to mark the publisher’s centenary of Mills & Boon with a bodice-ripping drama exploring the company's beginnings.

The 90-minute Consuming Passions drama will tell the stories of three women involved in the publishing house. It will, the corporation promises, be “very raunchy”.

The one-off drama is based on biographical details of the lives of Gerald Mills and Charles Boon, the founders of the company, as well as testimonies from the publisher’s current authors, reports TimesOnline

The style of the film will mimic that of the books, and “moves from the gently romantic through to the supercharged erotic”, the BBC says.

The writer is Emma Frost, whose credits include the Channel 4 comedy drama series Shameless, and its stars include Olivia Colman, best known for her role in the comedy Peep Show.

The first part of the programme will follow the story of Mary, the wife of Charles Boon, and the couple’s battle in the bedroom, which helped to define the direction in which Boon took the publishers.

The second story is set in the 1970's and follows fictional spinster author Janet Bottomley as she falls in love with her mother''s dashing doctor 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, a university lecturer in a stagnating relationship who is distracted by a "swarthy young stranger.”

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