Lynda La Plante
Lynda La Plante, CBE, is an English author, screenwriter and former actress, best known for writing the Prime Suspect television crime series.
Works
Widows
A police shootout leaves four thieves dead during an explosive armed robbery attempt in Chicago. Their widows have nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses' criminal activities. Hoping to forge a future on their own terms, they join forces to pull off a heist.
Release Date:2018-11-06
Department:Writing
Job:Original Story
Vote Count:2317
Prime Suspect 1973
Prime Suspect 1973 tells the story of 22-year-old Jane Tennison's first days in the police force, in which she endured flagrant sexism before being thrown in at the deep end with a murder enquiry.
Release Date:2017-03-02
Department:Writing
Job:Novel
Episode Count:6
Vote Count:36
Goodbye Granadaland
As ITV's move from its iconic base on Quay Street to the Orange Tower at MediaCityUK nears completion, this tribute looks back at 56 years of Granada television. Beginning from its inception in 1954, including rare archive footage of its co-founders, brothers Sidney and Cecil Bernstein, replays archive clips of some of the programmes and performances filmed and produced there - from Coronation Street, Prime Suspect, Jewel In the Crown, and Stars In Their Eyes, to the television debuts of The Sex Pistols, Take That, and the Beatles.
Release Date:2013-06-15
Character:Self
Prime Suspect
Detective Jane Timoney finds that being a homicide detective in New York City is tough enough and having to contend with a male-dominated police department to get respect makes it that much tougher. She's an outsider who has just transferred to a new precinct dominated by an impenetrable clique of a boys' club. Timoney has her own vices too – with a questionable past – and she tends to be forceful, rude and reckless. But she's also a brilliant cop who keeps her eye on one thing: the prime suspect.
Release Date:2011-09-22
Department:Production
Job:Executive Producer
Episode Count:13
Vote Count:38
Above Suspicion
Above Suspicion is a British TV series based on Lynda La Plante's novels Above Suspicion, The Red Dahlia, Deadly Intent and Silent Scream. It stars Kelly Reilly and Ciarán Hinds, and features the career of La Plante's latest heroine DC Anna Travis. The first series, Above Suspicion, was shown on the fourth and fifth of January 2009; the second series, Above Suspicion: The Red Dahlia, was shown on the fourth, fifth and sixth of January 2010. The third series, Above Suspicion: Deadly Intent, was shown on the third, fourth and fifth of January 2011. The fourth series, Above Suspicion – Silent Scream was shown on the ninth, sixteenth and twenty-third of January 2012; in a break from the previous broadcasts, which were broadcast on consecutive days, this latest tale was serialised weekly. ITV cancelled Above Suspicion on May 28, 2012.
Release Date:2009-01-04
Department:Production
Job:Producer
Episode Count:11
Vote Count:25
The One Show
A topical magazine-style daily television programme broadcast live on BBC One.
Release Date:2006-08-14
Character:Self
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:25
Imagine Me & You
During her wedding ceremony, Rachel notices Luce in the audience and feels instantly drawn to her. The two women become close friends, and when Rachel learns that Luce is a lesbian, she realizes that despite her happy marriage to Heck, she is falling for Luce. As she questions her sexual orientation, Rachel must decide between her stable relationship with Heck and her exhilarating new romance with Luce.
Release Date:2006-01-27
Department:Production
Job:Executive Producer
Vote Count:1032
The Paul O'Grady Show
The Paul O'Grady Show is a British comedy chat show hosted by Birkenhead-born comedian Paul O'Grady. The format was originally devised by Granada Television and was broadcast on ITV before moving to Channel 4, where the show was produced by Olga TV. The programme is a teatime chat show consisting of a mixture of celebrity guests, comic stunts, musical performances, and occasionally viewer competitions.
Release Date:2004-10-11
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:11
The Commander
Determined and ambitious detective, Commander Clare Blake takes charge of the Serious Crime Group within the Metropolitan Police.
Release Date:2003-02-16
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:12
Vote Count:4
Widows
The widows of three men killed while trying to steal a famous painting, join forces to find their husband's killers and finish off the job of stealing the painting.
Release Date:2002-08-06
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:4
Framed
New York detective Mike Santini is enjoying a holiday with his family when he spots Eddie Meyers a fugitive from justice who might be the key witness in a high profile case involving money laundering. Santini plays a major role in capturing Meyers which prompts the wiley criminal to request Santini to be the interrogating officer. The two size each other up in the interrogation room in a thriller that provides a number of unexpected twists.
Release Date:2002-02-13
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Vote Count:14
The Warden
Release Date:2001-01-12
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Vote Count:1
Mind Games
A former nun turned criminal profiler is called in to investigate the horrific ritualistic murders of two middle aged women. Her unorthodox approach means that she has to deal not only with solving a murder but also winning the trust of her sceptical colleagues.
Release Date:2001-01-06
Department:Crew
Job:Creator
Vote Count:2
Supply and Demand
A by-the-rule police officer must team up with a streetwise cop and go undercover in an operation to bust a major drug ring in Manchester. This becomes the start of a continuing partnership.
Release Date:1998-09-01
Department:Creator
Job:Creator
Killer Net
Students get involved in a violent Internet-based game, around the same time as a series of murders - is there a connection?
Release Date:1998-05-05
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:4
Vote Count:8
Bella Mafia
Following the brutal murder of her husband and male kin, Sophia unites with her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law, in a fierce quest for vengeance against their enemies.
Release Date:1997-11-16
Department:Writing
Job:Novel
Vote Count:25
Trial & Retribution
Trial & Retribution is a feature-length ITV police procedural television 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 2008 series 10 had 10 episodes, the longest run of the drama so far. The latest series was number 12 which aired in February 2009.
Release Date:1997-10-19
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:30
Vote Count:11
The Prosecutors
Drama (and prospective pilot) about the lives of three women who work in the New York City DA's office: one a brilliant prosecutor of high-profile cases whose husband is shot and killed in an armed robbery; a second, her tough, bitter, chain-smoking, boozing, wheelchair-bound former mentor; a third, a Latina who is an ambitious legal intern.
Release Date:1996-12-02
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
An Audience with Freddie Starr
A celebrity audience pays tribute to the inimitable Freddie Starr, one of Britain's zaniest comedians.
Release Date:1996-03-02
Vote Count:1
The Governor
Helen Hewitt is first woman put in charge of Barfield, a maximum security prison that had been nearly destroyed by a disastrous riot. Despite being greeted with open hostility by inmates and little enthusiasm by prison staff, she is determined to clean up the place.
Release Date:1995-05-14
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:12
She's Out
Dolly Rawlins is free again. She has served the eight year prison sentence for her husband's murder and is now set to collect the six million pounds worth of diamonds that she stashed before she was sent down. The money will enable her to follow her dreams and start a new life. But her former cell mates have their own ideas...
Release Date:1995-03-06
Department:Production
Job:Associate Producer
Episode Count:6
Vote Count:1
The Lifeboat
The lives and missions of the crew of a Welsh rescue boat.
Release Date:1994-04-27
Department:Production
Job:Producer
Episode Count:9
Comics
Johnny Lazar, a down-and-out American comedian who tries to regain his status as an international superstar by embarking on a tour of working men's clubs and universities in England. But on his first night, Johnny is witness to a gangland murder and finds himself having to go on the run as he becomes the target of hit men who want to eliminate any chance of them being identified.
Release Date:1993-07-06
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:2
Vote Count:1
Seekers
Seekers is 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. It starred Brenda Fricker and Josette Simon, and was written by the celebrated novelist and screenwriter Lynda La Plante who also wrote the book of the same name. It was produced by Sarah Lawson.
Release Date:1993-04-25
Department:Creator
Job:Creator
Vote Count:1
Framed
Lawrence Jackson and Eddie Myers could not be more different. Jackson is an ambitious young police officer saddled with the responsibilities of a wife and children. Myers is an escaped criminal turned informer, presumed dead. But as Jackson discovers whilst holidaying in Spain, Myers is very much alive. He has reinvented himself as Phillip von Joel, handsome, dangerously charismatic and very wealthy. Extradited back to England after a nerve-wracking Scotland Yard Operation, von Joel agrees to a deal with the Police, He'll tell what he knows - but only if Jackson is his interrogator. So begins a deadly game of cat and mouse between the master criminal and his determined minder. Which comes first - duty or temptation?
Release Date:1992-11-27
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:4
Vote Count:6
Seconds Out
When boxer Murray Ritchie is framed for rape, he loses his chance of a long-awaited title fight. Released too late by the police, he blames Jack, his veteran trainer and manager, and goes over to rival promoter Tony Farrington. Needing the money, Murray is encouraged to turn to the rough and seedy unlicensed circuit for a fight that would see him banned from professional bouts.
Release Date:1992-10-04
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Prime Suspect
Highly skilled Detective Inspector Jane Tennison battles to prove herself in a male dominated world.
Release Date:1991-04-07
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:6
Vote Count:86
Civvies
Former soldiers in Britain's elite Parachute Regiment struggle to come to terms with civilian life after leaving the army.
Release Date:1991-02-20
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:5
Vote Count:3
This Morning
This Morning features a variety of news, as well as show business, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, home and garden, food, tech, live phone-ins, and competitions.
Release Date:1988-10-03
Character:Self
Episode Count:2
Vote Count:21
Hidden Talents
Nellie (Pat Phoenix) is weak and bedridden in her aging, decrepit house due to a bad heart. Living out of her front room, Nellie is looked after by her son Harold (Tom Bell) who is going deaf and prone to eccentric and emotional outbursts following a motorbike accident some years previous. Relations are tense and fractious between Nellie and Harold, a state of affairs which isn't helped by Nellie's affectionate recollections of her estranged son Stanley (Tom Georgeson) who left many years before, taking with him Nellie's savings.
Release Date:1986-11-15
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Unnatural Causes
Series of seven psychological dramas concerning death by unnatural causes.
Release Date:1986-11-08
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:7
Vote Count:2
Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime
Spirited dialogue, posh Roaring '20s style, and devious mysteries abound as Tommy and Tuppence Beresford mix marriage and mystery solving.
Release Date:1983-10-09
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:14
High Road to China
A biplane pilot is saddled with a spoiled industrialist's daughter on a search for her missing father through Asia that eventually involves them in a struggle against a Chinese warlord.
Release Date:1983-03-18
Character:Lina
Vote Count:87
Widows
Three armed robbers--Harry Rawlins, Terry Miller, and Joe Pirelli--die when the security van that they are robbing catches fire in the Kingsway Tunnel in London. Their widows--Dolly Rawlins, Shirley Miller, and Linda Pirelli--find their husbands' plans for the robbery and decide to stage it themselves.
Release Date:1983-03-16
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:12
Vote Count:6
The Draughtsman's Contract
A young artist is commissioned by the wife of a wealthy landowner to make a series of drawings of the estate while her husband is away.
Release Date:1982-11-12
Character:Mrs Clement
Vote Count:233
Bergerac
Bergerac is a British television show set on Jersey. Produced by the BBC in association with the Seven Network, and first screened on BBC1, it stars John Nettles as the title character Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in Le Bureau des Étrangers, part of the States of Jersey Police.
Release Date:1981-10-18
Character:Lisa Reynolds
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:17
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years is an 8-part 1981 drama serial based on the life of Winston Churchill, and particularly his years in enforced exile from political position during the 1920s and 30s. It was written and directed by Ferdinand Fairfax and Churchill was played by Robert Hardy. Hardy's brilliant performance as Churchill won critical acclaim and a BAFTA award in 1982. He reprised the role in The Sittaford Mystery, Bomber Harris and War and Remembrance and at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the end of World War II in 1995 when he quoted a number of Churchill's wartime speeches in character.
Release Date:1981-09-06
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:3
The Gentle Touch
The Gentle Touch is a British police drama television series made by London Weekend Television for ITV which ran from 1980-1984. Commencing transmission on 11 April 1980, the series is notable for being the first British series to feature a female police detective as its leading character, ahead of the similarly themed BBC series Juliet Bravo by four months.
Release Date:1980-04-11
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:7
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
This intriguing story is set in the 1930s at a country house, where two amateur sleuths, Bobby Jones and Lady Frankie Derwent, try to unravel the mystery behind a tale of murder, suspense and false identities. And the only clues the two have to go on are the puzzling last words of a dying man. Featuring characters created by Agatha Christie, Why Didn't They Ask Evans is a classic crime thriller sure to please murder-mystery fans.
Release Date:1980-03-30
Character:Mrs. Roberts
Vote Count:15
Coming Out
Lewis, a gay writer of romantic novels, writes an article on gay issues under the pseudonym of "Zippy Grimes." The reason for this is that he hasn't come out yet and he doesn't want to alienate his mainly female fan-base. The article is a great success and leads to a huge amount of reactions, mainly from other gay men who are leading a double life. He decides to meet a number of these letter writers and eventually is forced to come out.
Release Date:1979-04-10
Character:Cecilia Plasche (as Lynda Marchal)
Vote Count:3
Beasts: Special Offer
A misfit teenage checkout operator has an unrequited crush on her supermarket manager. At the same shop's cuddly cartoon mascot seems to have come alive and is causing havoc. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale’s “Beasts” horror anthology miniseries.
Release Date:1976-10-16
Character:Young Woman
Above Suspicion 2: The Red Dahlia
Anna Travis investigates a copycat killer in this three-part crime series from Lynda La Plante.
Department:Creator
Job:Creator
Vote Count:6
Educating Marmalade
Marmalade Atkins is the naughtiest girl in the world. In fact, she's so wicked that her parents and social worker decide that the only thing to do with her is to blast her into space. But, knowing Marmalade, it's not going to be that easy!
Release Date:1982-10-25
Character:Mrs Atkins
Episode Count:10
Out
Frank Ross returns from an eight-year prison sentence for a robbery that was thwarted because somebody 'grassed' the gang. Nobody knows who put the finger on him, but Ross is determined to find out and seeks revenge on those who betrayed him. Little by little, Ross pieces together the trail that leads to a dramatic conclusion.
Release Date:1978-07-24
Character:Angela
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:2
The Professionals
The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.
Release Date:1977-12-30
Character:Viv Copeland
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:42
Beasts
Beasts is a series of six television plays by Manx writer Nigel Kneale, unconnected but for a bestial horror theme, made by ATV for ITV in the United Kingdom and broadcast in 1976.
Release Date:1976-10-16
Character:Young Woman
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:4
Rentaghost
Rentaghost was 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.
Release Date:1976-01-06
Episode Count:58
Vote Count:7
The Sweeney
Jack Regan, an unethical officer of the Flying Squad, uses unorthodox methods to pursue criminals with the help of his partner, George Carter.
Release Date:1975-01-02
Character:Eve Fisher
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:22
Play for Today
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
Release Date:1970-10-15
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:8
Z-Cars
Z-Cars or 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, Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.
Release Date:1962-01-02
Character:Janey Hinden (as Lynda Marchal)
Episode Count:3
Vote Count:5