Lynda Joy La Plante was born Lynda Joy Titchmarsh on the 15th of March 1943 in Newton-le-Willows, but was comfortably raised in Great Crosby, Liverpool where she went to a very small private school, Streatham House in Crosby, but it was not until she was seven that a teacher began to realise she was unable to read. Nowadays it would be diagnosed as dyslexia, but at the time that was unheard of. It was when Miss Dawn McCormick, who had been an actress, arrived to do speech and drama that Linda's life would change. Linda explains, "One day she said: 'Have you ever thought of doing some acting pieces, Lynda?' That was it. She caught me completely and utterly and changed my life. Everything clicked and I started to go in for all these acting exams. She said to me: 'There is a college in London called RADA. Have you ever thought of being a drama student?' As a teenager, Linda remembers telling her father, a sales manager, that she wanted to go to RADA and he said: "Is that a pub – and can I come?" His whole life revolved around the golf club. Her mother, who was always known as Flossie, never really got what she was up to. Linda would tell her about a show of hers on TV and she would say: "Well, if it clashes with the football, I’m not watching." She loved watching sports and was buried in a Liverpool shirt. Her grandmother, Gertie, lived with them and knew the name of every racehorse running.
Linda applied to RADA at the age of 15 and when she was 16, went to train for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and, showing steely determination, she told them she was 20 and it worked. 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 in popular television series including 'Z-Cars', 'Educating Marmalde', 'The Sweeney', 'The Professionals' and 'Bergerac'. As Linda points out, "I always played the same part, I always played a prostitute, falling out of a door, falling out of a car, working in the rain." As an actress she is perhaps best remembered as the hay-fever suffering ghost Tamara Novek in the BBC children's series 'Rentaghost' (1976-84). It was in 1974 that she took her first script writing job on the ITV series 'The Kids from 47A' (1973-75). Not coming from a theatre-going family, the only experience she had was of Brian Rix farces, so on graduation she applied and joined his famous Whitehall theatre. On a touring visit to the Liverpool Playhouse she had an epiphany, courtesy of the Williamson Square theatre’s artistic director David Skase, whom Lynda describes as 'a brilliant man', who told her she was wasting her talents on knockabout comedy. She subsequently went to work at the Playhouse where she appeared in rep alongside other rising stars like Anthony Hopkins. She married American musician Richard La Plante in 1978 but they divorced in 1996, during which time Lynda had suffered two miscarriages.
Her breakthrough came in 1983 when she created and wrote the the woman's point-of-view 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. The success of this tough crime caper placed her firmly in the TV thriller writers' landscape and she was perhaps the first female British television crime writer, joining the male-dominated ranks of such TV 'tough guy' writers as Ian Kennedy Martin, Troy Kennedy Martin and Ranald Graham. A second series of 'Widows' followed in 1985, while a sequel 'She's Out' took up the story ten years later. In the years following the highly popular 'Widows' Linda became one of British television's most sought-after writers of crime/underworld-themed drama. With her incredibly prolific output of well-researched, multi-part 'mean streets' thrillers, with the narrative observed from an astute woman's angle, she broadened the scope of the television crime/mystery genre.
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| At the Primetime Emmy Awards with Sally Head and Helen Mirren |
Her debut novel, The Legacy, was published in 1987 and received both critical and best-seller success. Her second, third and fourth novels came soon after – The Talisman (1987), Bella Mafia (1990) and Entwined (1993), all of which became international best sellers. In 1990 she began working on her next television project, 'Prime Suspect', released by Granada Television in 1991, assuring her prestige as a TV writer as she created DCI Jane Tennison for the psychological police drama who became one of British TV's most memorable characters of the 1990s (enhanced through a no-nonsense performance by Helen Mirren). As well as airing in the UK it was also on PBS in the United States as part of the anthology programme 'Mystery!', winning Linda an Edgar Award in 1993 from the Mystery Writers of America for her work on the series. In 1992 she wrote a TV film called 'Seekers', starring Brenda Fricker and Josette Simon.
In 1994 she created her television company La Plante Promotions and under that aegis wrote and produced the sequel to 'Widows', the equally gutsy 'She's Out' (1995). Her output continued with her new company as she wrote and produced another high rating series, 'The Governor' (1995-96), a series focusing on the female governor of a high security prison, and this was followed by a string of ratings-pulling mini-series: the psycho-killer nightmare events of 'Trial and Retribution' (1997-2009), the undercover police unit operations of 'Supply and Demand' (1997-98), 'Killer Net' (1998), the female criminal profiler cases of 'Mind Games' (2001) and 'The Commander' (2003-08). During this period she also released the Cold series of books; Cold Shoulder, Cold Blood and Cold Heart, followed by Sleeping Cruelty (2000) – adding to her list of best sellers.
In 1996 she co-wrote and executive produced 'The Prosecutors' (NBC) with Tom Fontana (starring Stockard Channing), wrote and executive produced 'Bella Mafia' (1998 CBS) (starring Vanessa Redgrave), which Linda adapted from her novel of the same name. In 2001 she co-produced 'The Warden', starring Ally Sheedy, a variation of her series 'The Governer', and also co-produced her adaptation of the UK hit 'Widows' (2002 ABC) and produced the pilot of 'Cold Shoulder' (2006 New Regency / CBS) starring Kelly McGillis, which was based on her Cold series. She was also executive producer on Daniel Petrie Jnr's adaptation of her show 'Framed' (2002 TNT) which starred Sam Neill and Rob Lowe. Releasing 'Royal Flush' (2002), she then began working on her Anna Travis series, which includes 'Above Suspicion' (2004), 'The Red Dahlia' (2005), 'Clean Cut' (2007), 'Deadly Intent' (2008), 'Silent Scream' (2009), 'Blind Fury' (2010), 'Blood Line' (2011), 'Backlash' (2012), and 'Wrongful Death' (2013). 'Prime Suspect' was also remade as an American series, running for 13 episodes in 2011-2012 and 'Widows' was remade as a US-set film in 2018, directed by Steve McQueen.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/11/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-clive.html
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