Prime Suspect

"Prime Suspect" is a highly-acclaimed Granada Television police-procedural television drama series of the decades of the 1990s and 2000s, which has been followed up by several sequels. The screenplays of the first three mini-series were written by Lynda La Plante.

Helen Mirren plays Jane Tennison, a hard-bitten female detective (DCI (and starting in the third mini-series, Detective Superintendent) in a male-dominated profession in this crime series. The character was said to be based on Alison Halford, who acted as an advisor to the authors.

The programme set a trend for many new programmes with women in leading roles. One example is M.I.T., a spin off from The Bill on ITV.

"Prime Suspect"'s format amounts to a series of mini-series: each case runs for several nights of two hours. In the 1990s, five such mini-series each completed a case. "Prime Suspect 6" broadcasts begin, in the U.S., on 2004 April 18, and Mirren says she expects to make the seventh her last.

Filmography

• Prime Suspect (1991)
• Prime Suspect 2 (1992)
  • 4 1-hour episodes
• Prime Suspect 3 (1993)
• Prime Suspect 4 (1995)
  • The Lost Child
  • Inner Circles
  • Scent of Darkness
• Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgment (1996)
• Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness (2004)
  • 2 2-hour episodes