Latest news with #JaneTennison
BreakingNews.ie
06-08-2025
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Lynda La Plante: I hope my new female forensic star makes it to the screen
Prime Suspect's fearless detective Jane Tennison may have gone, but at the age of 82 her creator Lynda La Plante is introducing another crime-fighting female in a new book series which she hopes will stretch to 10. 'I actually love writing and I love creating,' enthuses the award-winning Liverpool-born crime writer and actress who wrote and produced the Nineties hit Prime Suspect, which starred Helen Mirren, as well as TV series Widows, Trial & Retribution and The Governor, and has penned more than 50 novels. Advertisement Funny and eloquent, fizzing with energy, the talented octogenarian looks at least a decade younger than her years and is great company, mimicking characters with authentic accents and creating drama in every story she recounts, going off on entertaining tangents at every opportunity. (Matt Crossick/PA) 'I've been having these chest pains,' she reveals, 'and the cardiologist said, 'Well, if they continue for more than 10 minutes take yourself off to A&E,'' which she did after 40 minutes, with her son, Lorcan. 'And then it started. I have eight injection sites – four nurses and a doctor couldn't get a vein,' she says dramatically, showing me the bruises. 'I was screaming in pain, saying 'I'm going home, I've had enough'. Eventually on the ninth attempt they managed to get some blood. 'Later on, one of the doctors came by and he said (voice grave, accent clipped), 'I'm very sorry for the treatment you had but we didn't realise how old you were'. I thought, thanks! You could have killed me!' It turned out to be a chest virus. Advertisement Sparkling company, dripping with dry wit and irony, La Plante is sharp as a knife. Her thirst for knowledge is unrelenting, as she talks as enthusiastically as someone half her age about forensic advances, blood spatters, call tracking, light sourcing, fingerprints and footmarks. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Wendy (@wendyreadsbooks) Her new series introduces Jessica Russell, an experienced CSI (crime scene investigation) officer who is chosen to head a team of scientists, experts in blood splattering analysis, fingerprint and data retrieval in the newly formed Metropolitan Police Serious Crime Analysis Unit (MSCAN). The Scene Of The Crime, the first novel in the series, sees Jessica and her team unravel the mystery of a savage attack on the husband of a notorious barrister, who is left comatose. There are difficult senior officers and mounting pressure for results in the mix, just as you imagine there would be in reality. She's hoping to write 10 books in the series. Advertisement 'I don't think I could ever retire. If somebody was to stand outside the door when I'm writing, they'd think, 'I better have the straitjacket ready for her because she's a lunatic'. I'm in there, talking away to myself.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Preloved Bookstore (@bookendsae) La Plante would love her new character to be brought to TV and says she has already had interest. 'I'd like to be executive producer, which means I'm over it, on it and around it but I'm not doing the heavy duty work. I would be clinging to the desk to cast because it's so important to find someone with the right quality.' She'd also want to write the script. 'The progress (of TV adaptation) is frighteningly slow,' she says candidly, lamenting the huge amount of decision-makers there are in the process these days who haven't necessarily had the experience needed to bring great writing to life. Advertisement (Gemma Day/PA) She's had her fingers burnt on numerous occasions, she reveals. 'Scalded, burnt and chopped off!' she declares. It's no secret she fell out with ITV bosses over 'creative differences' on the young Tennison series, Prime Suspect 1973. 'When you are confronted by someone who says, 'We're very excited, we've got this lovely, wonderful, handsome actor.' I said, 'He's not right for the part at all.' But you are one little voice with a retinue of other people, some of whom have never produced a thing themselves.' She's renowned for being meticulous in her research, talking to top scientists and senior police officers, has visited morgues and mortuaries, attended post-mortems and was the first layperson to be awarded an honorary fellowship to the Forensic Science Society. Advertisement Her research helps her create realistic scenarios, often missing in other writers' work. 'In Silent Witness you've got a pathologist investigating crime, going out to locations. You don't do that. The pathologist is in the laboratory,' she explains. She watches a lot of TV crime programmes and currently rates the US series The Blacklist and The Waterfront. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Blacklist (@nbcblacklist) 'Yes, they (the US) have a bigger pool of actors over there but it's the standard of the filming and the scripts which are incredible.' She would prefer to cast an unknown as Jessica Russell in any adaptation which may be made. 'What happens here is they list their actors coming into a new series as 'ex-EastEnder' or 'ex-Coronation Street', faces that we all recognise and know. 'It's very hard to fire through with something refreshing, because they hope that putting an actor's face in it who is well-known will turn on viewers. 'No!', I just want to scream, 'What turns on viewers is how good it is!'' As well as writing, she co-hosts a podcast, Listening To The Dead, with former CSI Cass Sutherland, exploring forensic science and its impact on solving crimes. Her forensic details may be accurate, but it is also the characters that set La Plante's writing apart. 'I didn't want someone who was like Jane Tennison, I didn't want another female detective I've worked with (her Anna Travis book series). I wanted someone not automatically likeable. Jessica has gained experience by her own life experience. She's not a policeman. She can't make an arrest. She is there to tell her experts what to look for. 'I didn't want somebody alcoholic, you don't want somebody who's had terrible marriages, or divorces, or whatever. But what happens in your life marks you for the rest of your life.' (David Parry/PA) Jessica's back story includes a childhood in which her father left, taking only her twin brother, her mother suffering aggressive cancer, and a sexual assault early on in her career.'She is on the sidelines of pain and death,' La Plante explains. 'She's slightly unnerving, because of her stillness.' As the years roll by, divorcee La Plante, whose adopted son Lorcan lives in a garden annex of her home in Surrey with his girlfriend, says she should take more care of herself but she doesn't. 'I swim every day and I walk in the park and try to eat well,' she offers. Lorcan also keeps her young, she agrees. 'He's extraordinary, training to be a pilot. But he does treat me a little bit like the Asda store. I see items disappearing (from her house) under his arm like paper towels or a bottle of milk,' she chuckles. 'But he's a wonderful chef, so he entertains lavishly over there, often when he's raided my fridge.' The deaths of friends such as Bread actress Jean Boht, who died aged 91, and others who have reached their 80s have made La Plante think of her own mortality – but not for long. 'I'm very fortunate to have a happy gene.' And the writing shows no sign of abating. 'I've got bits of paper everywhere, never mind the character's name, I've got bits of paper on who's talking, which takes an energy level – and then the calm starts when it's finished.' (Zaffre/PA) The Scene Of The Crime by Lynda La Plante is published by Zaffre. Available now
Daily Mirror
26-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Helen Mirren at 80 - 'Don't ever tell me to grow old gracefully!'
A national treasure, though she'd probably cringe at that description, as she turns 80 acting royalty Helen Mirren offers her forthright opinions about ageing, marriage and confidence Dame Helen Mirren is as fearless, feisty and adventurous as ever. And as she celebrates her 80th birthday today, 26 July, she can certainly rest in the knowledge that she remains one of Britain's most ageless actors - one who has always pushed tirelessly against the idea of how long a woman can remain 'relevant' - particularly on-screen. The national treasure, who has played a whole host of iconic roles, from Detective Jane Tennison in the television series Prime Suspect to her Oscar-winning turn as Queen Elizabeth II in 2006 film The Queen reveals the secrets to her 40-year relationship with husband director Taylor Hackford. She also reveals she never plans a thing when it comes to the future - and why, as she prepares to celebrate her milestone birthday, as OK! reports, the last thing she wants to hear is that she looks 'good for her age' or worse, that she's 'ageing gracefully'... How is your approach to ageing gracefully helping you with turning 80? I am not ageing gracefully at all! I hate that term - it sounds like you have to be elegant and accepting, and, no, I am not. I am ageing with fun, with commitment but not gracefully. Who cares about graceful? We just do grow older, there's no way you can escape that. You have to grow up with your own body, your own face and the way it changes. It's not always easy but it is inevitable. You have to learn to accept it. How do you feel when someone says you look good for your age? Insulted (laughs). You look good for your age is patronising. I hate that kind of comment. Be prepared, if you use that phrase, to be dissed in a major way! You've often credited the 1950s Canadian Air Force program for keeping you looking so fit and healthy... That's true. I have to admit, I don't do it so much now, and I should get back into it. It is a great way to get fit. You just do what they tell you to do. You start very low and you think, 'Oh, this is just much too easy.' And if it is, then you start making it more difficult for yourself. Then you go, 'Oh my God, no, this is really difficult.' It can be quite challenging, but it works. It's great.' What are your top tips to keep looking and feeling good? It's as important to make the inside of you, as healthy as the outside of you. I always go everywhere with my vitamins. That is probably the most important thing in my beauty bag, actually. What you eat, what you drink, what you don't smoke, really makes a massive difference to your skin, especially as you progress through life. It's incredibly important to feed the inside of your skin, as much as the outside of your skin.' How has your relationship with beauty and image changed over the years? The majority of us are not beautiful. There are beautiful people who walk on this planet, and we can all see them and appreciate them, but the majority of us are not beautiful like that. But, we can put on style, we can put on swagger, we can put on confidence, we can put on wit and charm, and lots of other things that are just as attractive as sheer beauty. So, I think in a way, that word - beauty - it alienates people. It did for me, for many years, I have to say. Is there anything you've learned about beauty that you wish you'd known when you were younger? Yes, to let go of the concept of beauty. Think of confidence. Think swagger. Enjoy beauty where you see it, absolutely, but let go of it for yourself. Don't let it influence your thinking in any way. I remember being in my thirties and being told, if I used this cream, I could look like I was a teenager again, with absolutely no marks of any living whatsoever. That annoyed me. Luckily, we have gone way beyond that. Where does your own confidence and swagger come from? It took a while and I'm still working on it. I was very, very insecure as a young person. My body was the wrong shape. I was very insecure around people. The most important thing is to remember that probably everybody feels the same.' You play many strong, ferocious characters on-screen. Are you anything like them in real-life? I wouldn't say I'm ferocious. I'm a total wimp. I'm not a confrontational person at all. I can be argumentative sometimes - more so when I was younger. I would defend positions that I thought were correct. I have always been a feminist, and argumentative but, I don't think I am ferocious. Maybe people would have a different idea of me, I don't know. How do you look back on your career up to now? Yes, well, you know, I think I was brave. I have to say, as a young actress, I think I was courageous. I was. And keen to break down attitudes that I thought were old-fashioned, or retrograde, or just wrong, you know. So, I relished having roles. That is the great thing about drama, is that it can do that, without being lecturing because it is entertaining at the same time. It can really change people's attitudes about things.' Have you always been at ease with being in the spotlight? No, not at all. A lot of actors become actors because they are shy, in a way. They find being themselves quite difficult, so it is much easier to become someone else. I think that was the case with me, to a certain extent, certainly when I started.' Your next film is T he Thursday Murder Club. What can you tell us about that? It's based on the extremely successful Thursday books. It's with a some beloved fellow British actors and it's a very British subject. I'm really excited about it. Do you still feel British - though you're a big Hollywood star, live in America and have an American husband? I do. I'm very proud to be British and it's funny because even in America I seem to be surrounded by Brits. It's full of them! The world has become so much smaller. You and your husband have been together for 40 years and married for more almost 30. What's your secret? I think it helps that we're both in the same business. We understand what we each go through and the demands on your time. But the main thing is trust. As long as you trust and respect each other, and are not jealous of each other, then it works. We came into the relationship already very grown-up, so all of that crap was out of the way. And it's not such a bad thing to be separated for two or three weeks from time to time. That's fine, as long as you trust each other and really look forward to seeing each other again. Finally, what are your plans for this next chapter of your life? I have no idea. You know, when I was 20, I didn't know what my twenties would be like. I didn't know what my thirties would be like... I still have no idea and that's the adventure. Life is an adventure. I don't plan anything. I don't expect anything. I will just allow life to come and hit me, the way it always has.
