Lynda La Plante on tragedy, writing and her new detective

Lynda La Plante is an award-winning crime fiction author, screenwriter and former actress.

Her breakthrough came in 1983 when she created and wrote the series Widows for Thames Television. She is perhaps best-known for Prime Suspect. Actor Helen Mirren played the lead character Jane Tennison in the series which first aired in 1991.

The 82-year-old, who was awarded a CBE in 2008, spoke to Saga Magazine about her life, career and the publication of her latest novel The Scene of the Crime.

The full interview is in our September edition.

Her childhood family tragedy

“My mother Flossie, pregnant with me, was pushing my brother Michael in the pram on her way to collect her six-year-old daughter, Dail, from school when a woman came up to her and said, ‘Don’t go round the corner. Something terrible has happened’.

“My mother continued on and saw in the road a little patent leather shoe and instantly knew it was her daughter’s. She had been trapped beneath the wheels of a ten-ton truck. She lived for three weeks.

“She was stunningly beautiful with coal-black hair and icy blue eyes. She was perfection, and funny, and we still have her little school books.

“My younger sister Gill and I never knew Dail but there were portraits of her everywhere in our house in Merseyside. She never died. She was always six.

“Later in life I realised how much pain my parents hid.” 

Why she swapped acting for writing

“I was only 15 when I won a scholarship to RADA, so had to lie that I was 18. I hated my time there, but loved the friends I made including John Hurt and Ian McShane.

“I was always in work as an actor and yes, with my red hair, I did play a lot of prostitutes.

“I was in the middle of playing a role in a dreadful TV show and asked how do people write these awful scripts. Then I went home and wrote out three ideas, all of which were rejected. One of them was Widows, which was made in 1983.”

On working with Helen Mirren

“My sister Gill did most of the casting for my TV dramas including Prime Suspect.

“Helen Mirren always says I gave her one of the best [acting] notes she’s ever been given. Jane Tennison is a detective, on the edge all the time, so I told her: ‘Don’t smile’.” 

The one thing she’s grateful to her ex-husband for

“I was married for 18 years to Richard La Plante and couldn’t wait to get rid of him. My name was the best thing he ever gave me.

“He was a fascinating creature, but then when he wanted to become me, and write, it all turned inwards.’

Adopting her son in her fifties

“I had miscarriage after miscarriage and was told I would never have my own child [due to an early menopause].

“When I hear about women in the same situation, I say, it isn’t over. There are children who need you. I was 55 when I was offered a baby to adopt in the US where I was living.

“Lorcan is 22 now and lives with his girlfriend in a cottage in my garden. He is training to be a pilot and is an extraordinary young man.

“Although people are living so long now, if I’m going to be a grandmother my son had better hurry up!”

On losing her sight after a cataract operation

“In 2018 I had a botched cataract operation that left me blind for six months, which meant I had to dictate everything. After surgery, I can now see.

“As long as I’m able to move and my brain is still active, I’ll carry on writing. I’ve got an awful lot in me yet.”