🎵 🎵 Hello and welcome to Meet the Writers.
I'm Georgina Godwin.
My guest today is a celebrated crime author, playwright, screenwriter and actress.
Born in Liverpool, she attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, studying along with the likes of Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt and Ian McShane and then going on to work at the Royal Shakespeare Company and in an array of productions and television shows.
While filming, she began writing treatments for television programmes until eventually one show was picked up.
Widows, the six-part crime robbery series, came out in 1983 to rave reviews.
Four years later, her debut novel, The Legacy, was published and received both critical and bestseller success.
In 1990, she started working on her next television project, Prime Suspect, which aired in 91.
Starring Dame Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennyson, it was met with global acclaim.
The show led her to win an Edgar Allan Poe Writers' Award and the Dennis Potter Award from BAFTA for her work on the series.
Following further success, she formed her own television production company in addition to writing more books.
She was awarded a CBE for her work in literature, drama and charity in 2008.
Her latest novel is Crucified, the fifth book in the Detective Jack Waugh crime series.
Linda LaPlante, Linda Titchmarsh, Linda Marshall.
You are so many people, but Linda LaPlante, I think, is how we know you best.
Welcome to Meet the Writers.
Thank you very much, Georgina.
I have to start by asking you if you ever had a tricycle as a child.
Yes.
Do you know something?