Lynda La Plante
Encyclopedia
Lynda La Plante, CBE
(born Lynda J. Titchmarsh on 15 March 1943) is an English
author
, screenwriter
and former actress, best known for writing the Prime Suspect television crime series.
La Plante's father was a salesman in Liverpool
. She attended RADA
and began her career as an actress, mainly on television. As Lynda Marchal, she appeared in several popular series including Z-Cars
, The Sweeney
, The Professionals
and Bergerac
. However as an actress she is perhaps best remembered as the hay-fever suffering ghost Tamara Novek in the BBC
children's series Rentaghost
.
Her first TV series as a scriptwriter was the ITV
children's sitcom The Kids from 47A
in the early 1970s. However she did not find fame until the six part robbery series Widows
was produced in 1983. The plot concerned the widows of four armed robbers carrying out a heist planned by their deceased husbands.
In 1991 ITV released Prime Suspect which has now run to seven series and stars Helen Mirren
as DCI Jane Tennison. (In the United States
Prime Suspect airs on PBS
as part of the anthology program
Mystery!
) In 1993 La Plante won an Edgar Award
from the Mystery Writers of America
for her work on the series. In 1992 she wrote a TV movie called Seekers
, starring Brenda Fricker
and Josette Simon
, produced by Sarah Lawson
.
She formed her own television production company, La Plante Productions, in 1994 and as La Plante Productions she wrote and produced the sequel to Widows
, the equally gutsy She's Out (ITV, 1995). The name "La Plante" comes from her marriage to writer Richard La Plante, author of the book Mantis and Hog Fever. La Plante divorced Lynda in the early 1990s.
Her output continued with The Governor (ITV 1995-96), a series focusing on the female governor of a high security prison, and was followed by a string of ratings-pulling mini-series: Trial & Retribution
(ITV 1997-), Bella Mafia
(1997) (starring Vanessa Redgrave
), (ITV 1998), Killer Net
(Channel 4 1998) and Mind Games (ITV 2001).
Two additions to the Trial & Retribution miniseries were broadcast during 2006.
Her latest novel, Blood Line, was released in summer 2011. It is another Anna Travis novel following Above Suspicion
, The Red Dahlia, Clean Cut, Deadly Intent, Silent Scream and Blind Fury.
She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.
book Five Chimneys. The main characters in Entwined are twins who survive medical experimentation during their childhood in Auschwitz, are separated after the war, and reunited many years later. Five Chimneys is Lengyel's firsthand account of the medical experiments that she witnessed as a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz. Some of the Auschwitz scenes in Entwined appear to be very closely based on passages from Lengyel's memoir. La Plante admits this, but says that she never read Lengyel's work herself, and claims that a researcher was responsible for the paragraphs in question.
In a 2010 interview with The Telegraph
, La Plante complained, “If my name were Usafi Iqbadal and I was 19, then they’d probably bring me in and talk.” “But... it’s their lack of respect that really grates on me.” She went on to say, "If you were to go to the BBC
and say to them, ‘Listen, Lynda La Plante’s written a new drama, or I have this little Muslim boy who's just written one’, they’d say: ‘Oh, we’d like to see his script.’” Ben Stephenson
(BBC Controller of Drama) responded, "She has one piece at the moment, and one that we paid fully for the script development. She wrote the script but ultimately we decided we didn't share the vision for that project so we parted. So she absolutely got in the door."
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born Lynda J. Titchmarsh on 15 March 1943) is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and former actress, best known for writing the Prime Suspect television crime series.
La Plante's father was a salesman in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. She attended RADA
Rada
Rada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages....
and began her career as an actress, mainly on television. As Lynda Marchal, she appeared in several popular series including Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
, The Sweeney
The Sweeney
The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London...
, The Professionals
The Professionals (TV series)
The Professionals was a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mk1 Productions and London Weekend Television that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon...
and Bergerac
Bergerac (TV series)
Bergerac was a British television show set on Jersey. Produced by the BBC in association with the Seven Network, and screened on BBC1, it starred John Nettles as the title character Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in "Le Bureau des Étrangers" Bergerac was a British television show...
. However as an actress she is perhaps best remembered as the hay-fever suffering ghost Tamara Novek in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
children's series Rentaghost
Rentaghost
Rentaghost is a British children's television comedy show, broadcast by the BBC between 6 January 1976 and 6 November 1984. The show's plot centred on the antics of a number of ghosts who worked for a firm called Rentaghost, which rented out the ghosts for various tasks.-Background:The company,...
.
Her first TV series as a scriptwriter was the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
children's sitcom The Kids from 47A
The Kids from 47A
The Kids from 47A was a British children's television series produced by ATV Network about four children whose widowed mother is taken into hospital, leaving them to cope on their own...
in the early 1970s. However she did not find fame until the six part robbery series Widows
Widows (TV series)
Widows was a British primetime television serial aired in 1983, produced by Euston Films for Thames Television and aired on the ITV network....
was produced in 1983. The plot concerned the widows of four armed robbers carrying out a heist planned by their deceased husbands.
In 1991 ITV released Prime Suspect which has now run to seven series and stars Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
as DCI Jane Tennison. (In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Prime Suspect airs on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
as part of the anthology program
Anthology television series
An anthology series is a radio or television series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each episode. These usually have a different cast each week, but several series in the past, such as Four Star Playhouse, employed a permanent troupe of character actors who...
Mystery!
Mystery!
Mystery! is an episodic television series that debuted in 1980 in the USA. It airs on PBS and is produced by WGBH...
) In 1993 La Plante won an Edgar Award
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
from the Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....
for her work on the series. In 1992 she wrote a TV movie called Seekers
Seekers (TV series)
Seekers was a four part TV mini-series released in 1992 about a police officer who disappears, and when his wife tries to find him, she discovers... another wife. They team up to search for him...
, starring Brenda Fricker
Brenda Fricker
Brenda Fricker is an Irish actress of theatre, film and television. She had appeared in more than 30 films and television roles...
and Josette Simon
Josette Simon
Josette Patricia Simon OBE is a British actor of Antiguan descent. She trained for the stage at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.-Career:...
, produced by Sarah Lawson
Sarah Lawson (producer)
Sarah Lawson was an English film producer.-Career:From 1982 to 1985, she was Vice President of Planning and Development for DL Taffner Ltd, Los Angeles, and from 1995 to 1996 she was Managing Director of Anglia Television Entertainment Ltd - a joint venture between HBO and the ITV Company.She is...
.
She formed her own television production company, La Plante Productions, in 1994 and as La Plante Productions she wrote and produced the sequel to Widows
Widows (TV series)
Widows was a British primetime television serial aired in 1983, produced by Euston Films for Thames Television and aired on the ITV network....
, the equally gutsy She's Out (ITV, 1995). The name "La Plante" comes from her marriage to writer Richard La Plante, author of the book Mantis and Hog Fever. La Plante divorced Lynda in the early 1990s.
Her output continued with The Governor (ITV 1995-96), a series focusing on the female governor of a high security prison, and was followed by a string of ratings-pulling mini-series: Trial & Retribution
Trial & Retribution
Trial & Retribution is a feature-length ITV police proceduraltelevision drama series that began in 1997. It was devised and written by Lynda La Plante as a follow-on from her successful television series Prime Suspect. Each episode of the Trial & Retribution series is broadcast over two nights. The...
(ITV 1997-), Bella Mafia
Bella Mafia
Bella Mafia is a 1997 American television film starring Vanessa Redgrave and Dennis Farina. Redgrave was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film....
(1997) (starring Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
), (ITV 1998), Killer Net
Killer Net
Killer Net was a television mini series broadcast on Channel 4 in May 1998. The series is set around the lives of three students living in Brighton and an internet based computer game....
(Channel 4 1998) and Mind Games (ITV 2001).
Two additions to the Trial & Retribution miniseries were broadcast during 2006.
Her latest novel, Blood Line, was released in summer 2011. It is another Anna Travis novel following Above Suspicion
Above Suspicion
Above Suspicion is a 1995 suspense thriller written by William H. Macy, who also has a small role in the film. The film stars Christopher Reeve as a paralyzed police officer who plots to murder his unfaithful wife and her lover...
, The Red Dahlia, Clean Cut, Deadly Intent, Silent Scream and Blind Fury.
She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.
Controversy
In 2008, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that sections of her 1993 book Entwined appear to be plagiarized from the 1947 Olga LengyelOlga Lengyel
Olga Lengyel was a Romanian woman who became a prisoner at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, and later wrote about her experiences in her book Five Chimneys.-Life and career:...
book Five Chimneys. The main characters in Entwined are twins who survive medical experimentation during their childhood in Auschwitz, are separated after the war, and reunited many years later. Five Chimneys is Lengyel's firsthand account of the medical experiments that she witnessed as a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz. Some of the Auschwitz scenes in Entwined appear to be very closely based on passages from Lengyel's memoir. La Plante admits this, but says that she never read Lengyel's work herself, and claims that a researcher was responsible for the paragraphs in question.
In a 2010 interview with The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, La Plante complained, “If my name were Usafi Iqbadal and I was 19, then they’d probably bring me in and talk.” “But... it’s their lack of respect that really grates on me.” She went on to say, "If you were to go to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and say to them, ‘Listen, Lynda La Plante’s written a new drama, or I have this little Muslim boy who's just written one’, they’d say: ‘Oh, we’d like to see his script.’” Ben Stephenson
Ben Stephenson
Ben Stephenson is an English television executive, who has been controller of drama commissioning at the BBC since September 2008.-Early life:Stephenson attended The Hewett School in Norwich before studying at Manchester University.-Television:...
(BBC Controller of Drama) responded, "She has one piece at the moment, and one that we paid fully for the script development. She wrote the script but ultimately we decided we didn't share the vision for that project so we parted. So she absolutely got in the door."
External links
- Lynda La Plante at the MBCMuseum of Broadcast CommunicationsThe Museum of Broadcast Communications is an American museum that currently exists exclusively on the Internet and not in any physical capacity. Its stated mission is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain...
Encyclopedia of Television - Lynda La Plante biography and credits at the BFIBritish Film InstituteThe British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
's ScreenonlineScreenonlineScreenonline is a Web site devoted to the history of British film and television, and to social history as revealed by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lottery New Opportunities Fund.Reviews... - La Plante Productions