An explicit new television drama series starring Billie Piper as a high-class call girl who blogs about her sexual encounters has been accused of glamorising prostitution.

The Secret Diary of a Call Girl is based on an anonymous internet blog, Belle de Jour, which purportedly was written by a London prostitute who goes by the pseudonym Belle. The blog, documenting Belle’s sexual escapades, was turned into a best-selling novel.

Piper, 24, who is a family audience favourite after starring as Rose in Doctor Who, lobbied to play the lead role in the ITV2 adaptation, which begins this month, after reading the book.

Each episode of the eight-part series is based on a sexual encounter between Belle and a client. Belle, depicted as a prostitute by choice, is filmed in various states of undress, and develops an emotional attachment to some of the men who pay for her services.

Piper said: “This is the story of a witty, well-educated girl who enjoys having a lot of sex and likes being paid a lot of money for it. She makes no apologies for it. It is her choice and she is very much in control.”

At one point the producers placed a 10-denier stocking over the camera lens to make a sex scene more “glossy”. Piper spoke to the real “Belle” and was given onset instruction by a dominatrix on whipping techniques.

But the series has been criticised for fuelling male fantasies and misrepresenting prostitution. A spokeswoman for the English Collective Of Prostitutes said: “The series might reflect the lifestyle of a few high-end girls but the majority of prostitutes do not have a choice. They are doing it to put food on their children’s table and often place themselves in dangerous circumstances.”

The spokeswoman said that publicity photographs of Piper in stockings and suspenders reflected a male stereotype of prostitutes. An accurate reflection of such women’s lives would show them in a battle with the police and local councils for safe places to work from.

Ms Piper denied that the series’ aim was pure titillation. She said: “This is TV so it looks slightly glamorous. It always does when you put a camera on these things. But this is going on and just because it’s not right for us, we take the moral high ground.”

She acknowledged that there were also “many desperate girls walking the streets for a few quid. It’s cruel and brutal”.

The Belle De Jour blog prompted a wave of literary “sex memoirs” said to be written by prostitutes. Titles such as Kinky Confessions of a Working Girl were accused of peddling a myth that women secretly fantasise about selling their bodies.

The Secret Diary of a Call Girl, made by Tiger Aspect, the company behind family programmes including the BBC’s latest Robin Hood, was adapted by Lucy Prebble, a new screenwriter, and produced by a largely female team. It starts on September 27.

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