Next up in Tube Talk’s preview of the best 2009 has to offer is the shamefully sexy Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, returning for a third series towards the end of the year. Series producer Rebecca de Souza tells us what’s in store for Billie Piper’s alter ego in the new series.

Where are you at with series three right now?
“We haven’t started pre-production officially. Official pre-production begins when you’ve hired your director, and that will happen at the end of February. But we have five scripts now and we’ll commission another three soon, so right now we’re really working on the scripts and the stories.”

The recommission for a third series came before series two had even aired. Did you expect such an early pickup?
“No, and it’s very, very nice to be in that position because it means you can get ahead of time.”

In terms of storylines, did it allow you to sow seeds in series two that will come in to play in series three?
“No, it didn’t especially do that. The big advantage it’s given us is time to plan the scripts, as opposed to doing it in a kick-bollock-scramble way, which is how we normally work. You always get there in the end with kick-bollock-scramble, but it’s exhausting and you tend to spend too much money. It’s quite a small budget show, so to be in advance means we can make our money go further.”

How many series have you planned for?
“We’re only planning for this series, but we’ve always got our eye on the next series. So, for example, we won’t be killing anybody off. We don’t know yet if we’re having a fourth series - we would hope to - but we have to make sure we have an eye on our richest characters to carry us through. So obviously that’s Belle, but there’s also Bambi (Ashley Madekwe), who is a significant character in series two and will be in three. And Ben (Iddo Goldberg) and Belle’s family.”

Read the rest at www.b-piper.com.