Lynda La Plante interview

Published: Friday, 15 June 2007, 3:44PM

The grand dame of TV crime writing, Lynda La Plante, reveals what inspires her...

The Commander first appeared on our screens in 2003 and has proved a popular drama with audiences. Have you enjoyed revisiting the character of Clare Blake once again?
Yes, it’s very interesting to be able to show so many diverse areas of her character by having three very different stories. They are three complete stories so you don’t have to do a follow-on. You can jump her up a few months or a year. So she continues, I hope, to be very, very interesting.

How much of your scripts are based on real-life events?
There’s always a real case buried somewhere inside, because I think truth is stranger than fiction. 

Do you have stacks of newspaper clippings then?
You wouldn’t believe the files I’ve got. Oh, I am the most annoying person with a newspaper. I got a story out of the newspaper today in fact and it’s probably one no one else will do because it is in the back pages. I have clippings all over the floor in my house, and nobody’s allowed to touch them, as I know exactly where each one is. Sometimes there can be a tiny little article like "Grandmother of eight holds up a post office”. And I cut that out and I track it back, find the granny and interview them, if they’re in prison, or wherever, and the family members. First off, I ask them: “Is it OK that we do it? You won’t recognise yourself.” Very rarely has anybody complained, because I do bury them. Sometimes they say: “I couldn’t tell it was me at all it didn’t even look like me”. And I say: “I didn’t want it looking like you."

One previous episode, Devil You Know, featured the death of a child and the world of schizophrenia. Are there any real-life stories you won’t touch?
The one thing I draw the line at is the [Jamie] Bulger case. I won’t do that because that little boy’s family are still alive. What my feelings are about boy A and boy B I don’t think I should broadcast. I also wouldn’t do a case about child abduction, because of the present situation of the abducted little child [Madeleine McCann]. So I draw the line at any plotline that would hurt a relative. A good script came the other day, but it touched right across the case of Suzy Lamplugh and I said: “I can’t do this, I really can’t do this.” Her body’s never been found and so it’s still what I call a warm case. So I won’t ever do that.