My through a

Celebrities share the stories behind their favourite snaps – this week it’s author and screenwriter Lynda La Plante, 79

1976

Here I am, as a young actress, with my spaniel Nellie, who appeared on stage with me in Molière’s play The Misanthrope at Oxford Playhouse. Every night she yawned while I recited a long speech and it brought the house down. After training at RADA I performed, as Lynda Marchal, with the RSC. I also appeared in Z Cars, The Sweeney and kids’ TV series Rentaghost. Nobody will let me forget it. I was giving a lecture to Oxford University graduates about writing and during the Q&A someone asked me, ‘Weren’t you in Rentaghost?’ I played a ghost with hayfever who disappeared when she sneezed.

1997

The designer Elizabeth Emanuel loaned me this fabulous dress and wig when I attended Elton John’s extraordinary 50th birthday party at the Hammersmith Palais in London. I got to know Elton a bit when he was going to write the music for a crazy film I’d written about aliens up North, but it never came about. He’s fun, witty and lives life to the full. Everyone thinks I’m a party animal, but I’m actually quite solitary. 1981

As you can probably tell from my outrageous outfit, I had great fun performing opposite John Bird [pictured] in the children’s TV series Educating Marmalade. It also starred Charlotte Coleman in the title role, who was a sweetheart. I gave up acting because, as a short redhead from Liverpool, I was always cast as a prostitute. I didn’t realise how many ladies of the night I’d played until I appeared with Melvyn Bragg on The South Bank Show, and they replayed all the occasions I’d stumbled out of doorways over the years.

2008

Here I am with Cilla Black and actress Lynda Bellingham, both of whom have sadly died, at Christopher Biggins’s 60th birthday party. Cilla was a class act. She was always immaculately dressed and an absolute hoot. Lynda was my closest friend. We met when we worked in theatre together and became pals for life. She’d always have me rolling about with laughter. When she was terminally ill with cancer, she’d ring and say, ‘I’m getting a bit worried about all this publicity. If I don’t die, they’ll think I’ve been conning everybody.’ 1955sister

My younger

Gill [on the left] and I were very different – she was shy but I was loud and naughty. We only really became close as adults when she became the main casting director for my TV production company. Sadly my older sister Dale died before I was born, and my brother Michael, who was a highly respeced doctor, died eight years ago. 1948

I’d had a terrible telling-off for messing around just before this picture was taken (I’m in the middle, front row), so I’m shrinking in my seat. My school in Liverpool was an updated St Trinian’s. After our one and only lacrosse lesson, we were told the point was not to beat our opponents with our sticks. I was dreadful at school because I was too busy having fun and getting up to mischief. 1991

I’m appearing as a waitress here in one of my most successful TV series, Prime Suspect – although the scene was cut. Before writing the show, I shadowed a real female detective chief inspector of police, who taught me everything. I’d print off several pages of the script and she’d say, ‘Rubbish’. I polished and polished to get the details right. ITV took some persuading before permitting me to cast Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison because she was known as a stage actress back then, and they wanted a TV star. But they quickly realised what a talent they’d got, and she brought a natural weight to the role. 2013Joan

Collins is the most glamorous woman I’ve ever met. She’s also funny, feisty, the last one dancing at a party and the last one pouring a glass of Champagne. Percy, her husband, is charming and a real gentleman – and he adores her. They are a divine and very fortunate couple. Jackie Collins, her sister, was also wonderful, though very different from Joan; she was more studious. She was very warm and friendly to me. When we did a joint publicity picture together, she said, ‘Hold your book up higher, darling. They can’t see the title.’