Lynda La Plante is Britain’s most successful and well known screenwriter and the first woman to win the prestigious Dennis Potter writer’s award. Attracting millions of viewers, the popular and critical success of La Plante’s work is central to understanding changes that shook the UK television industry in the late twentieth century. This critical introduction, the first account of her work, focuses on three innovative serials: Widows (ITV, 1983), Prime Suspect (ITV 1991) and Trial and Retribution (ITV 1997).
In each chapter questions of gender and genre, acting and stardom and authorship and value are mapped against the changing relationship between women and the television industry. The final chapter traces La Plante’s metamorphosis from ‘just a writer for hire’ to the astute businesswoman she has become through a focus on the trans-national appeal of dramas such as Killer Net (C4 1997) and Bella Mafia (CBS 1997).
- ISBN10 0719065488
- ISBN13 9780719065484
- Publish Date 1 July 2005
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 22 July 2009
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Manchester University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 176
- Language English