A new television adaptation of the 1913 DH Lawrence novel Sons and Lovers, to be screened early in the new year on ITV1, features more love scenes and explicit nudity than any TV drama in recent years.

It goes far beyond the boundaries pushed by the BBC's 1993 adaptation of Lawrence's most notorious work, Lady Chatterley's Lover, and is worlds away from the rather delicate 1960 Jack Cardiff film of Sons and Lovers, which starred Dean Stockwell as Paul Morel, with Trevor Howard and Wendy Hiller.

In the £5m drama, there are nine explicit sex scenes in one hour alone, including several images of full-frontal female nudity.

The first two-hour episode, focusing on Gertrude Morel's marriage to Walter, and the adolescence of her sons, has a mere six sex scenes. The second, which focuses on the sexual awakening of her son Paul, is likely to set pulses racing faster.

Esther Hall, who plays Paul's married lover Clara Dawes, is in several scenes which show full-frontal nudity. Rupert Evans, who plays Paul Morel, is also seen twice fully naked from the front. Full frontal nudity in British television drama is extremely rare.

Former Coronation Street star, Sarah Lancashire, also appears in the adaptation.

Charlie Pattinson, the executive producer, said: "DH Lawrence is all about sex so really there's no other way of tackling it. The drama is about Paul discovering sex, and so of course there is a lot of sex in the drama.

"It was there in the book but in a more coded way. We decided that the way to tackle the adaptation of the book was to follow them into the bedroom."

He said ITV always knew about the amount of sex. "It was always thought of as a post-watershed programme. The level of sex was not a surprise to ITV. We came clean to them about the adaptation, and how much sex we were planning on putting in, and they said, 'Yes fine, go ahead.'

"We didn't want to be coy in any way, and so we aimed to film the scenes fully nude without inhibitions, and whatever came out on film, came out."

Hall, who has appeared in other ITV programmes such as A&E, Playing the Field and Fat Friends, said: "I think that I was prepared for what was going to happen, so I wasn't too horrified when we were shooting. I read the book before I went in to see the director, and he said to me very gently that there was a certain amount of nudity which I would have to do. There was a bit of an issue with vanity and with being embarrassed - I think there is when you are naked - but for me it was part of my job.

"It was particularly odd for Sons and Lovers because they insisted that we were not allowed to shave or wax our body hair for the sake of period authenticity. They also said could I not go to the gym and eat lots of carbohydrates so that I didn't look too modern in shape. It goes right against what we do now, which is to prepare to look naked by working out and waxing."

Lancashire, who appears in several love scenes, said: "I'm not one for love scenes, and I'm a terrible giggler, so I did find them difficult."

Novel sex that was too graphic for TV

· The last adaptation of Sons and Lovers was a BBC2 version in 1981. It contained several love scenes but the then director general of the BBC, Alastair Milne, ordered that one scene be cut because it went too far

· The 1960 version included a scene in which Clara Dawes was seen sitting naked under bedclothes discussing lovemaking with Paul Morel. Jack Cardiff cut the dialogue to only four words, and said it was the hardest part of making the film

· The 1993 adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover, starring Sean Bean and Joely Richardson, and directed by Ken Russell, was criticised by the broadcasting standards council for its love scenes. Critics complained that the couplings were brutal and nasty, and that the dialogue was appallingly poor, but it boosted the careers of Bean and Richardson