Lynda La Plante 'proud' to get CBE

5:48pm Friday 21st November 2008

Award winning television writer Lynda La Plante described receiving a CBE as the "proudest moment" of her life.

La Plante, 62, has been the creative force behind some of Britain's most popular screen dramas over the past 25 years, including the acclaimed police series Prime Suspect. The honour was awarded by the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace for her services to literature, drama and charity.

La Plante said the CBE would enable her to do more charitable work helping individuals with financial and practical support on a "one-to-one" basis.

The former actress said: "I think now with this honour I will be able to do a lot more, people will take it much more seriously and I just hope this new year will prove I can do a lot more."

She prefers to give direct charitable help to individuals, from injured jockeys to parents having problems adopting children.

La Plante trained as an actress at Rada and went on to appear in a number of classic TV series including the Professionals, the Sweeney and Minder.

Asked what inspired her to write she joked: "I reached a point in my life when if you were not exceedingly well known, famous, by your late 20s or 30s, you knew you'd missed the boat. I'd always written but never contemplated it as a career, then one day I said can I have a go at this.

"I think what I've been blessed with, beyond anything else, is the most amazing self confidence. Most people will think 'I can't write, can I write?' I thought 'oh I'll do that'."

It was an unknown person who wrote "this is brilliant" on a rejected synopsis of the acclaimed series Widows which spurred La Plante on. She is still proud of the popular show which told the story of four women who become armed robbers.

She said: "When you have success it fires you up to keep working, to me the heartbreak is the people who never get published or try and try to get their television shows on and they're so unsuccessful."