Lynda La Plante is working on the script for a Prime Suspect prequel series after the show was commissioned by ITV. La Plante, who wrote the early instalement of the crime-drama starring Helen Mirren, will pen a six hour long episodes.

Helen MirrenHelen Mirren starred in the original Prime Suspect

The show will focus on a young Jane Tennison and her journey to becoming the first female Detective Chief Inspectors in the Metropolitan police. Set in the 1970s, La Plante's prequel will follow Tennison as a 22-year-old probationary officer in a world where high-ranking male officers were notoriously chauvinistic. 

However, Jane gets thrown in at the deep end when drawn into a brutal gangland murder, working alongside the senior investigating officer DCI Bradfield.

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The show will include a 70's musical soundtrack, though it is as yet unclear who will play the younger Tennison.

The original Prime Suspect won three Emmys for outstanding minis series, as well as numerous BAFTA's. La Plante also won an Edgar for Best TV Feature of Miniseries in 1993, while the series won a Peabody in the same year.

La Plante created the New York-set reimagining of the show for American network NBC in 2011, starring Maria Bello as detective Jane Timoney. She also co-wrote the 2002 heist mini-thriller Windows, which is to be adapted for a full-length adaptation by Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn and 12 Years a Slave's Steve McQueen. 

Meanwhile, Helen Mirren is currently working on Trumbo, a biopic of the Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted for being a communist. Bryan Cranston takes the lead. 

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