Crime novelist and screenwriter Lynda La Plante takes no prisoners …
The author of over 50 novels, all of which have been bestsellers, Lynda La Plante CBE, 82, was born in Lancashire in the UK. She trained at RADA as an actor before breaking through as a writer with the phenomenally successful television series, Widows, which was later made into a Hollywood film by Steve McQueen. She created the acclaimed, Emmy-winning TV show Prime Suspect, which starred Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison. This year, she was awarded the Diamond Dagger, the highest accolade in crime writing. Her latest novel, The Scene of The Crime (Zaffre, €12.99) is the first book in a new series introducing the character, Jessica Russell, a crime scene officer.
ON CREATING PRIME SUSPECT After all the work I’d done on Prime Suspect and all the hours I’d spent on research to create Jane Tennison, the script went in and they said, “We don’t like it. She’s not very nice. She doesn’t even cry when she’s handling that poor girl’s body.” I said, but she’s a detective. They said: “We’re not going to go with it. We’ve got this cop show set in Spain and we’re going to be doing that, sorry.” In those days they had a thing called Flexi-pool where TV networks could bid for scripts which hadn’t been commissioned. I was asked to pitch a crime film to this film company. The guy opened a drawer, pulled out my Prime Suspect script and said: “Everybody’s fighting for this script.”
ON RESILIENCE Underpnining everything should be professionalism. It is very tough out there for writers. Recently someone said they were working with a man who wanted to be a writer. I said, tell him to send me a treatment. My name was misspelt. My advice is, be very, very professional.
“I have a big sign in my office that says ‘Rejection does not mean no’. You can send in a script and it can be rejected but somebody else may love it and say it’s brilliant.”
ON REJECTION It’s difficult. And it has been difficult from day one. Apart from the first series I wrote, Widows. If everything in the rest of my career could have gone the way that went, it would have been perfection. Even now I get rejected, rejected, over and over again. The most awful thing is when they say, this is the best script we’ve had in, it’s fabulous, but we’re not going to do crime right now.
ON BECOMING A MOTHER The abuse I got for adopting my son in my 50s was appalling. He’s 22 now and training to be a pilot and he’s an extraordinary young man. I could not have done it without the financial resources to have people to help take care of him. In fact, his nanny, Rosemary, from Louisiana, looks after me now! I travelled the world with her.
ON RESEARCHING CRIME NOVELS I never have a tape recorder and I never take notes because as soon as your pen moves, they’ll stop talking. Research is a big thing for me. I have worked exactly the same way in every script and every novel: I go to source. If you’re writing a murder story about a woman who loves cats, find a woman who loves cats, talk to her. And talk to her face to face.
ON RESPECT When someone gives you two hours of their time, for no pay, respect them. If they’re concerned, show them what you wrote. I don’t take dramatic license, ever. Respect your own work too. Everything I write has to be better than the last thing.
ON SIGNING CONTRACTS The advice I give to everybody is to not sign a single contract without a lawyer. It took me 25 years to learn to look at a contract properly. I had no idea what I was signing.
ON STYLE I have never been able to spend thousands of pounds on clothes, it repels me. When I see someone carrying a £25,000 handbag I am appalled, disgusted. I shop locally, George at Asda. I wore a sequined jacket to the premiere of Elvis, and a woman behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said: “Excuse me, where did you get your jacket from, is it designer?” I said, “No, I got it at Asda.” I love make-up. I don’t go to hairdressers. I always do my own hair and my sister sometimes makes a hash of cutting it.
ON STANDING UP FOR YOURSELF Never walk away. I learned this listening to two prisoners talking to each other. One said to the other: “If somebody does me in, I go for the jugular. Don’t waste time.” That may sound like a ridiculous thing to go by, but if somebody insults you, you have to go for the jugular. Bang it out, and have a go at them.
The Scene of The Crime (Zaffre, €12.99) is out now.
