In the documentary following the second half of Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act (2006), Dame Helen Mirren notes that Jackie Malton and her colleagues gave the first "Prime Suspect" a standing ovation because they felt it was the first time the police had been accurately portrayed on television.
Lynda La Plante made this mini-series after watching reality-television crime shows. After calling Scotland Yard and learning that there were only four female DCIs, she interviewed one of them (Jackie Malton), who impressed her so much that La Plante decided to base the plot on Malton's experiences during her career.
In a November 2019 interview with the Daily Mail, Helen Mirren said "When Lynda La Plante came up with DCI Jane Tennison for the television series Prime Suspect, that part changed me and changed my life. It was the first time I played a strong, brilliant woman who was made up of dark and light and who was driven and unapologetic. She wasn't attached to any man. I adored her. And more than that, I adored that we were bringing this woman out into the world."
According to Lynda La Plante in the documentary about the making of this mini-series, when she called the Metropolitan Police (a.k.a. Scotland Yard) and inquired as to how many female DCIs there were on the force, the woman who answered her call said, "Oh, quite a number! Four!" Jackie Malton appeared on the same documentary, noting that she was one of three DCIs on the force at that particular time.
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