Lynda La Plante says "depressing" BBC would opt for 'little Muslim boy's script over mine'

London, Jan. 2 (ANI): British screenwriter Lynda La Plante has attacked BBC's drama commissioning team as "very, very depressing," which would rather read a script by a "19-year-old Muslim boy" than one that she has written.

"If you were to go to the BBC and say to them, 'Listen, Lynda La Plante's written a new drama, or I have this little Muslim boy who's just written one', they'd say: 'Oh, we'd like to see his script," The Telegraph quoted La Plante, 63, as saying.

"Whether they're just frightened of me being an independent, and quite a powerful independent, I don't know," she added.

The creator of Prime Suspect, whose career as a writer of primetime drama spans over 25 years, said: "If my name were Usafi Iqbadal and I was 19, then they'd probably bring me in and talk," said La Plante. "But... it's their lack of respect that really grates on me."

The BBC has been denying giving Muslims any special treatment.

However, the corporation has a target that 12.5 per cent of its employees should be from ethnic minorities by December 2012.

La Plante is not the first to question the BBC over its drama commissioning.

In September Andrew Davies, the so-called 'king of the bonnet drama', said the corporation's period drama had gone "downmarket" and it was only interested in the "popular warhorses" of literary fiction. (ANI)