LYNDA LA PLANTE

Lynda La Plante is one of the UKs most successful and popular producers of television drama. Her award winning crime series frequently tackle controversial and difficult themes such as paedophilia, pornography and serial murder, attracting many millions of viewers nationally and internationally. This critical introduction traces her career from the early days when she was, as she puts it, just a writer for hire to the successful businesswoman she has become today. Integral to an understanding of La Plantes work is her status, as a professional writer and producer, in the television industry. Through a focus on three innovative series, Widows (ITV 1983), Prime Suspect (ITV 1991), and Trial and Retribution (ITV 1997), the book maps questions of gender and genre, acting and stardom and authorship and value against the changing relationship between women and the industry. The final chapter confirms La Plantes metamorphosis from writer for hire to astute entrepreneur through a focus on the transnational aesthetics and contexts of dramas such as Killer Net (C4 1997) and Bella Mafia (CBS 1997)._,