The wonder of a slow burn romance

I write romance, but my TV viewing is mostly comedy and detective series, rather than love films. In my childhood I loved shows like The Scarecrow and Mrs King, Dempsey and Makepeace, Moonlighting, then there was Friends and Spaced and now I adore Castle and The Big Bang Theory. What do these shows have in common? It’s the slow burn of romance. That delicate dance between two people who fancy each other, but don’t want to admit it. The tension between them leads slowly, inevitably to that first kiss. Even in Friends (do people still watch Friends?) the romantic tension was at its best before Ross and Rachel finally got together. After that … well it was still funny, but no longer the same.

In Doctor January, Hibs is in love with Beth from the very start…