Relax, about the rise to fame of the 80s pop group Frankie Goes to Hollywood, has been announced as in the works. The film will be directed by Bernard Rose, who directed the Relax music video, as well as films including Candyman and Ivans xtc.
Callum Scott Howells, who rose to fame on It’s a Sin, Russell T Davies’s drama set during the Aids epidemic in the 80s and 90s, will play the band’s lead singer, Holly Johnson. His memoir, A Bone in My Flute, forms the basis for the film.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood formed in 1980. Their first three singles, Relax, Two Tribes and The Power of Love each topped the charts in 1984, and the first two were briefly banned by the BBC because of their sexual provocation.
The band reunited for a pre-Eurovision show this week. Photograph: Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images for The National Lottery
Their first album achieved pre-sales of more than a million, but their 1986 followup was less successful and, the next year, Johnson sued their record label, ZTT, and began a solo career.
On Saturday, the band reunited for the first time in 36 years in their hometown of Liverpool to play one song – Welcome to the Pleasuredome – as part of a pre-Eurovision concert.
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The film is being made by Working Title and Independent Entertainment.