Monday 24 August 1998
By eBroadcast Staff and agencies.

by Halliwell Hannah

British crime writer, P.D. James, currently visiting Australia for the Melbourne Writers' Festival, had some strong opinions to express about the television adaptations of her best selling novels. Speaking at a seminar about the use of location in novels, the 78 year old author of The Black Tower, Shroud of a Nightingale, A Taste for Death and A Certain Justice, was side-tracked into a discussion about the television versions of her murder mysteries.

The TV movies, many of which feature Inspector Dalgleish (or is that Superintendent?), have performed well on Australian TV. James complained though, that she was often annoyed by scriptwriters who deleted characters or whole slabs of dialogue, only to replace them with other characters or inferior dialogue that was detrimental to the story. She jokingly told the audience that she often thought about forming a group called Writers Against Adapters.