Prostitute blog-turned-novel heads to ITV2

Billie Piper is to star as the London call girl Belle de Jour in a television adaptation of the book.

The eight-part series, one of ITV2’s first major drama commissions, is based on the popular diary of the anonymous sex worker, which began life as an online blog.

The Tiger Aspect and Silver Apples production was originally meant for Channel 4, but the broadcaster turned it down.

A new drama, Exposure, about a journalist working in Iraq, based on the experiences of reporter Audrey Gillan when she was embedded with British troops during the invasion during 2003, is also planned to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

ITV director of television Simon Shaps has said the broadcaster aims to include more drama on ITV2, and had culled dramas such as Bad Girls and Footballer's Wives to release more of ITV's £300 million drama budget for new commissions.

Other dramas in the pipeline are The Old Curiosity Shop and an Andrew Davies adaptation of A Room With a View.