Lynda la Plante

View Reviews of books by Lynda La Plante

Countdown with ...

Lynda La Plante

Lynda La Plante was born in Liverpool. She trained for the stage at RADA where her fellow students included Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt and Ian McShane. After finishing her studies, she began her career as an actress, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a variety of productions, as well as popular television series including Z Cars, The Sweeney, The Professionals, Bergerac and Rentaghost.

Whilst filming The Gentle Touch with Jill Gascoigne, Lynda wrote a treatment for a TV series based on a botched bank robbery. Widows was commissioned by Verity Lambert of Euston Films for Thames Television. It became one of the highest rating series of the early 1980s.

Her original script for Prime Suspect won awards including BAFTAs, Emmys and the Royal Television Society as well as the 1993 Edgar Allan Poe Writer's Award. Lynda has written and produced over 170 hours of international television.

Lynda is one of only three screenwriters to have been made an honorary fellow of the British Film Institute and she was awarded the BAFTA Dennis Potter Writer's Award in 2000. In 2008, she was awarded a CBE for services to literature, drama and charity. She is a member of the Crime Thriller Awards hall of fame and is the only lay person to be made a fellow of the Forensic Science Society. She lives in London and New York.

Interviewed 11 November 2017

Ten words to sum up your working life to date ...

Exciting, fascinating, educational, heart-breaking, funny, exhausting, achievement, professionalism, dedication, grateful.

Nine things you can see from where you're sitting ...

A collection of Native American paintings, heads of two zebras (china ones), lamp with the base of a lion’s head, a monkey puppet, life-size Jack Russell dogs, bookcases crammed with books, the most incredible view of a bay, the tracks of my son’s motorbike which have destroyed my beautiful lawn. 

Eight minutes to prepare a meal. What's it going to be ?

Eggs Benedict, I could eat this every day.

Seven people you'd like to go for a drink with ...

Marlon Brando, Coco Chanel, Nelson Mandela, Elvis, Churchill, Napoleon, Hedy Lamarr.

Six things you can't live without ...

Gin and tonic, Kettle crisps, my computer, Pinot Grigio, lobster, my son Lorcan.

Five favourite words ...

Fxxk off, lovely, sorry, delicious, no

Four places you'd run away to ...

Necker Island, Lipari Island, Hawaii, Egypt.

Three books you've bought recently ...

The Late Show by Michael Connelly – he’s a brilliant writer and I love all his books.
Ripper by Patricia Cornwell – her research is absolutely astonishing and it is a brilliant book.
Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear – very well written crime debut, read it in one sitting.

Two things that make you rant ...

TV commissioners, parking tickets!

One thing you'd tell your teenage self ...

Don’t sign anything that has the words ‘in perpetuity’ attached to it! Get a good lawyer.