Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Directors: Ian Toynton, Paul Annett, Via Vision Entertainment.
Responsible for several of British television’s most iconic female characters, Lynda La Plant started out as an actress, until the dire quality of scripts compelled her to start writing her own. All her novels have been international bestsellers.
She made her breakthrough by scripting the phenomenally successful TV series Widows in 1983. This high profile mini series sees four gangsters killed in a robbery gone awry, leaving their widows to finish off the job. It was the success of Widows which made La Plant something of a household name and she began writing crime novels, many of which she then adapted for television, among them Bella Mafia and The Legacy.
The gritty crime series has strong female lead characters. When their villain husbands are killed during the attempted robbery of a security van, three widows have a chance to start afresh. Then one of them finds the robbery plans and they decide to finish what their husbands started.
Three of whom are suddenly widowed when their husbands are killed during a botched armed robbery attempt in the middle of London. One of the widows, Dolly Rawlins (Ann Mitchell), discovers she is sitting on a potential goldmine because her husband, Harry, kept a ledger detailing all his robberies over the years including the plans for a daring raid on a security van, which his gang had not yet carried out.
Using Harry’s ledgers, Dolly enlists the help of the other widows, plus a stripper, Bella O’Reilly (Eva Mottley) and resolves to pull off the raid themselves.
The widows’ plans are further complicated by the interest of Metropolitan Police Inspector Resnick (David Calder) and a local rival gang, the Fisher brothers, who also want to get their hands on Harry’s books. At the same time, Dolly, Bella, Shirley Miller (Fiona Hendley) and Linda Pirelli (Maureen O’Farrell) are almost torn apart by gossip and distrust when it is discovered that a fourth man in the fatal raid escaped – leaving their husbands for dead.
This was the first drama series made for women by women with impressive strength and depth of the characterisations. Not just writing it, but from every aspect including the casting.
A second series of Widows followed in 1985, while a sequel She’s Out took up the story 10 years later.
