Peril in writing series

Press, 24 September 1988, Page 8

Peril in writing series

By

JANE DUNBAR

The writer of the television series “Widows” says she was physically and verbally attacked while doing research for the programme. “Widows” is a six-part series about a group of crooks’ wives who pull off a robbery. Its author, Lynda La Plante, interviewed a range of prisoners, including Britain’s most famous female mass-murderer, Myra Bindley, before writing the series. The interviews were not always easy, said Ms La Plante, in Christchurch yesterday. "Sometimes I’d sit down opposite the person and they would look me up and down, and I could feel their anger and bit-

terness, and how alien I was to them. “Once a lifer got very angry with me. I suppose

she didn’t like the way I spoke and behaved, and suddenly she attacked and screamed at me. “She said I didn’t know anything, that I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and was ‘one of them.’ “So I belted her back, used the same language and Liverpudlian accent, and said Ihad come from a working-class background and nothing was easy for me either. The shock on her face.” The interview still was difficult, but it went ahead. The success of the television series was because of its realism, she said. “I put in all the characters’ flaws and problems so they were women people knew. It was the little details which did it.”

The series had changed her life, said Ms La Plante, who is bitter about her previous acting career. “Doors opened which had not only been shut before, but locked. “I was an exceedingly good actress, but was never a big enough name.” She appeared in a wide range of programmes, including “Crown Court,” “The Gentle Touch,” “Minder,” and “Bergerac.” She realised she was becoming just a "useful commodity” and turned to writing. The only way to become a star was luck, she said. Ms La Plante was in Christchurch to promote her new book, “The Legacy.”