Prime Suspect writer attacks ‘appalling’ levels of sex and violence on TV

Prime Suspect creator Lynda La Plante has blasted the “appalling” levels of sex and violence in today’s TV crime dramas.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, the 73-year-old author explained that she worries viewers are becoming desensitized to sex and violence, and believes cheap titillation has replaced good old-fashioned storytelling.

“It worries me greatly because there is gratuitous violence. Nudity, I am sick and tired of it. Sex, I am sick and tired of seeing that,” she explained.

“It seems as if you have to titillate a viewer – even a reader - to absolutely appalling proportions. It isn’t necessary. The heart of good crime writing is to keep you on the edge of your seat, not sit back and go, ‘Ooh he’s sexy, ooh she’s having another man. I loathe it. The unreality of this. It doesn’t happen that way.”

So, what on earth can Lynda be referring to? Well, despite naming no names, the Prime Suspect writer has made no secret of her distaste for BBC2’s The Fall in the past, so it’s pretty safe to say she’s aiming her ire at Gillian Anderson and co.

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday last year, the veteran writer said: “You’ve got wonderful performances but it’s focussed on the very handsome serial killer, what he eats, his sexual preferences – it’s glorying gore.

“What young actresses today are expected to do – sex scenes, violent scenes, rape scenes – in my mind it’s bordering on pornography and I feel deeply sorry they’re being forced into it.”

La Plante is well known for creating strong female characters in her novels, most notably Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, famously played on TV by Dame Helen Mirren.

She’s currently working on a series of novels focussing on the character’s early life, and credits contact with retired policewomen for sparking her ideas. “

They all feed me stories and then one goes click and sticks,” she explained. “Just one of them saying, ‘When I was a young officer I was used as a decoy for a prostitute who had been murdered… they gave me a coat and it stank of her perfume.’

“I was off.”