Lynda La Plante attacks BBC, saying Corporation would take a Muslim boy's script over hers

Prime Suspect creator Linda La Plante has lambasted the BBC's commissioning policy, claiming the Corporation would take a Muslim boy's script over hers.

Her controversial comments in the same week that the writer PD James criticised the BBC over its 'extraordinarily large' salaries for managers.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Ms La Plante - the writer behind the hugely popular Trial and Retribution series - bemoaned the BBC's drama commissioning, describing it as 'very depressing'.

She told the newspaper: 'If my name were Usafi Iqbadal and I was 19, then they'd probably bring me in and talk.'

Ms La Plante also criticised the Corporation over having to go through 'a retinue of people...' to get to 'the god Ben Stephenson'.

However, Mr Stephenson - BBC Controller of Drama - was quick to respond, saying that he was surprised by Ms La Plante's comments particularly because 'Lynda had two pieces in development with us'.

He told The Telegraph: 'She has one piece at the moment, and one piece that we paid fully for the script development. She wrote the script but ultimately we decided that we didn't share the vision for that project so we parted.'

Mr Stephenson's surprise at the comments was compounded by the fact that he had lunched with the crime writer over the last year and 'knew her pretty well'.

According to the newspaper, the BBC has a target that 12.5 per cent of employees should be from ethnic minorities by December 2012.

Religion is a subject that has dogged the BBC of late. In October, BBC Director General Mark Thompson admitted that programme-makers tackle Islam differently from Christianity.

He was responding to criticism from comedian Ben Elton, who accused the BBC of being scared to make jokes about Islam. He had accused the BBC of censorship, saying: 'There's no doubt about it, the BBC will let vicar gags pass but they would not let imam gags pass.'

Mr Thompson said at the time: 'What Christian identity feels like to the broad population is a little bit different to people for whom their religion is also associated with an ethnic identity which has not been fully integrated.'

This week Thompson was also given an unexpected drubbing by P.D. James, the 89-year-old crime writer and former BBC governor.

The Conservative peer likened the BBC to a 'large unwieldy ship' and grilled him over the fact that 375 executives at the corporation earn more than £100,000 a year, and 37 of them more than the Prime Minister's salary of £198,000.