Over the past 13 years Lynda La Plante has spearheaded La Plante Productions. In that time the company has produced a stunning slate of innovative dramas with proven success and enduring international appeal. La Plante’s philosophy is that the quality of the production that is at the forefront of everything and it this quality that has set the benchmark for the company.

Born in Liverpool and trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Work with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company led to a career as a television actress with regular roles in dramas such as Fox, Minder and The Sweeney.

While filming The Gentle Touch as an actress, La Plante wrote four plot outlines and sent them to the show’s producers. All were returned as unsuitable, but on one someone had written ‘this is wonderful!’ That was all the encouragement La Plante needed, and that brief synopsis eventually became the phenomenally successful TV series Widows. La Plante’s original scripts for the highly acclaimed Prime Suspect (starring Helen Mirren) garnered many awards and set a new standard for television drama.

La Plante Production Slate to date includes: nine series of Trial & Retribution commissioned directly for the ITV Network, impressive ratings, saw La Plante secure a commission to produce a further four editions of the show. Trial & Retribution X-XIV aired January 2007 and due to its success, has led to a further eight shows, Trial & Retribution XV – XXIII is currently in production.

The Commander, starring Amanda Burton in the title role, premiered on ITV1 in February 2003. Following its success a second series (‘Virus’ and ‘Blackdog’) aired in 2005. The Commander returned to our screens in March 2006 with ‘Blacklight’ and in 2007 with ‘Devil You Know’, ‘Fraudster’ and ‘Windows of the Soul’. The fifth series of The Commander will contain three episodes and is currently in production for ITV.

Two series of The Governor a television film and subsequent series of Supply and Demand; Killer Net, a cyberspace thriller and Mind Games, a pilot drama.

For US, La Plante co-wrote and executive produced The Prosecutors with Tom Fontana (Oz) for NBC. The Konigsberg Company produced Bella Mafia, a four-hour mini series for CBS which Lynda adapted from her novel of the same name.

La Plante has also co-produced with ABC her adaptation of Widows, produced Cold Shoulder as a pilot for New Regency/CBS and The Warden, a two hour pilot for TNT, which is a changed format of her highly successful series The Governor. La Plante executive produced Daniel Petrie Jnr’s adaptation of her show Framed, which aired on TNT and starred Sam Neill and Rob Lowe.

La Plante International launched in 1993 as the company’s own distribution company, in order to control the rights of its production slate and oversee foreign sales. La Plante International is committed to close involvement with its international broadcasters in order to cater for each territory's specific marketing needs.

La Plante Films is La Plante’s film division and encompasses Cougar Films set up with producer Sophie Balhetchet. Cougar has recently completed production on its first feature; Imagine Me & You, which received excellent reviews in the US, Australia and the UK. La Plante Films has a varied and exciting slate of projects currently in development.

Awards Prime Suspect (starring Helen Mirren) garnered many awards including six British Academy Awards (BAFTA), the British Broadcasting Award, the Royal Television Society Writer’s Award, the Edgar Allen Poe Writer’s Award and an EMMY for Best Mini Series. La Plante won the 1997 Liverpool Echo Arts Award for best television writer for Trial & Retribution and the series was nominated for an Indie and a Royal Television Society Award. Widows was nominated for a BAFTA award in 1982.

La Plante was awarded a creative writing scholarship to John Moores University, in her hometown of Liverpool and is an honorary member of the British Film Institute. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has also awarded Lynda with the Dennis Potter Writers Award.

On Saturday 14th June 2008 Lynda was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List (Writer and Producer for services to Literature, Drama and to Charity).

Books penned by Lynda La Plante include: The Legacy, Bella Mafia, Entwined, Cold Shoulder, Cold Blood, Cold Heart, Sleeping Cruelty, Royal Flush, Above Suspicion, The Red Dahlia and Clean Cut have all been international best-sellers. Lynda La Plante is published by Simon & Schuster.