Lynda La Plante

Lynda Joy La Plante, CBE (née Titchmarsh; born 15 March 1943) is an English author, screenwriter and former actress, best known for writing the Prime Suspect television crime series. Early life Lynda La Plante was born Lynda Joy Titchmarsh on 15 March 1943 in Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire. La Plante's older sister Dail was killed in a road accident, at the age of five, before she was born. Her younger sister, Gill Titchmarsh is a casting director, and the two have often worked together. They also had a brother who was a doctor. Raised in Liverpool, La Plante trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After finishing her studies, using the stage name Lynda Marchal, she appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a variety of productions, as well as popular television series including Z-Cars, Educating Marmalade, The Sweeney, The Professionals, and Bergerac. As an actress she is perhaps best remembered as the hay-fever suffering ghost Tamara Novek in the BBC children's series Rentaghost. In 1974, La Plante took her first scriptwriting job on the ITV children's series The Kids from 47A. Widows and career breakthrough Her breakthrough came in 1983 when she created and wrote the six-part robbery series Widows for Thames Television. The plot concerned the widows of four armed robbers carrying out a heist planned by their deceased husbands. A second series of Widows followed in 1985, while a sequel She's Out took up the story ten years later.