But also because of all the amazing Mills & Boon ladies she meets along the way: the editor, the established writer who's teaching the course in Italy, the aspiring writers, the fans. The programme is a success too - for one because Stella Duffy, as well as throwing herself into it whole-heartedly, is very good company (not many novelists make good TV). And she succeeds, in that the editor likes what she's done and would have taken it on had Stella wanted to continue with it. She has a real go at it - listens to people, goes on a writing course in Tuscany (prime M&B territory), stifles her attempts to write what she wants to write. It would have been very easy for her to be sniffy and condescending about Mills & Boon, but to her credit she's the opposite. M&B is way, way out of Stella's comfort zone her thing is more along the lines of lesbian-noir-realism. Trying is Stella Duffy, a serious, literary novelist.
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There are further birthday celebrations in How To Write a Mills & Boon (BBC4, Sunday).
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Plus we get to see her in the buff, and there's not much more romantic than that. Emilia melts, dumps her boring, passionless, cooking-and-property-price boyfriend. But then: enter tall, broad-shouldered man, strong of jaw and arrogant of manner.
Of course she knows Mills & Boon is all utter nonsense, laughable fantasy. Emilia Fox, taking a break from dissecting dead bodies in Silent Witness, is a 21st-century English lecturer, teaching a course in romantic fiction. It's left to the most unlikely of the three women to find Mills & Boon love. Seventy years later, an aspiring M&B author, played with a nice mixture of comedy and tragedy by Peep Show's Olivia Colman, knows exactly what romance is she just can't find it in the real world. Mr Boon may have understood the market, but he couldn't have starred in one of the books he published: he just didn't get that bit about women needing to feel wanted. All that ties the disparate strands is this strange publishing house that for a century has been churning out the same story, millions and millions of times. Dead clever too: three stories - from the 1900s, the 1970s and now - artfully plaited together. We are too, with Consuming Passion: 100 Years of Mills & Boon (BBC4, Sunday). It's alive and well and celebrating its 100th birthday.
The good news is that romance is not dead. To be honest, I wouldn't look out of place in a Mills & Boon novel. They prowl like tigers, have a tendency to be brutish and rapacious, especially in their kissing (which always involves him cupping her face in his hands), and they know that a woman needs to feel wanted. This is a different species altogether from the miserable creatures of the real world - tall, broad-shouldered, strong of jaw, and arrogant of manner. And, more specifically, the kiss of a man. The women seek happiness, and find it eventually. From child care to private detective work, Boon will turn his hand to most things.L ife is better between the covers of a Mills & Boon novel. Michael Elphick stars as middle-aged man trying his luck in the job market in this lively 80s drama. €œEx-fireman seeks interesting work – anything legal consideredâ€. Want to keep forever? Try looking for 'Boon' on Amazon (paid link)
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