Lynda La Plante: Prime Suspect, DCI Jane Tennison and the importance of true crime

It was the early 1990s and Lynda La Plante was desperate. She had a few TV drama successes under her belt, but everything she was pitching was greeted with a ‘no’ from commissioners.Then, in a pitch meeting, she dreamt up Prime Suspect when the TV boss said she wanted a ‘cop show with a female detective and a murder.'But to create Det Ch Insp Jane Tennison, Lynda needed to research true crime. Enter Met detective Jackie Malton - and months of research.This interview coincides with the release of Lynda’s final Jane Tennison book, Whole Life Sentence which takes readers to the detective’s life before Prime Suspect.In this episode, Lynda talks Tennison, Jackie Malton, the importance of grounding her fiction in fact and research.Whole Life Sentence is released on July 4th 2024. You can grab a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whole-Life-Sentence-pulse-pounding-Detective-ebook/dp/B0CSTSGNS8To learn more about Lynda, click here: https://lyndalaplante.com/ This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com/subscribe