The TV drama hot property who is very proud of her Melton roots

Louise Doughty had a big role in Crossfire, a BBC1 thriller starring A-lister Keeley Hawes which tells the story of a group of friends who go on holiday together at a Spanish resort and get caught up in a harrowing mass shooting with scandalous secrets being uncovered during their ordeal.

Louise (59) has been a published author for nearly 30 years with one of her books, the psychological thriller Apple Tree Yard, being dramatised by the BBC in 2017 starring Emily Watson.

She was born in Melton’s St Mary’s maternity unit and she told the Melton Times: "My mother grew up in Nether Broughton and we used to visit our grandparents there all the time, passing through Melton and often stopping off.

“I still have plenty of cousins who live locally and I feel a real emotional attachment to Melton and the surrounding area.”

Louise has a strong connection with the town’s iconic Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe.

She explained: “My grandparents met at Dickinson and Morris in the 1920s, so my origins could not be more Melton.

"My grandfather was a master baker and my grandmother's job was to pour in the molten jelly after he had raised the pastry round the meat.

"We used to have a pork pie on the table every Saturday teatime without fail, and it was a family tradition to have one for breakfast on Christmas morning. I love them but it has to be Dickinson and Morris. Bring home any of that supermarket rubbish and I’m likely to throw it at your head.”

Her role in Crossfire has been a real eye-opener for Louise in terms of what goes into creating a television drama and she is keen to do more in future.

"I was very involved with casting, planning et cetera,” she told the Melton Times.

"I didn’t have any actors in mind when I wrote the first episode but then Keeley Hawes came on board at that point and to be honest the rest was plain sailing.

"When you have a big star like that as your main character it just makes everything so much easier.”

The show attracted huge viewing figures, both watching live and and on catch-up streaming, and although many people loved it there were others who criticised it.

Louise commented: “When it came out, I thought it was unusual for the reviews to be so polarised but apparently that happens all the time, that’s just the world of television.

“I found it a very strange and exposing experience but what made it all right was the amazing response of the public, millions and millions of viewers watching it as it went out and then millions and millions more catching up with it on iPlayer.

"I’ve had some lovely emails and messages from complete strangers, it’s that sort of thing that makes it all worthwhile.”

She may be hot property now in the literary and TV world but Louise says it took many years for her to establish her reputation.

“I did the whole writer-in-the-garret thing when I moved to London, every conceivable job to support myself, bar work, secretarial work, part-time teaching,” she explained.

“Our parents were not well off, so I didn’t have any other financial support at all and the whole of my 20s were very hand-to-mouth.

"Gradually, I started getting some book reviewing work, then a bit of journalism, then a bit of work on book programmes on Radio 4.

"But nothing really happened for me as a writer until I turned 30.

"I had always said I wanted to be a professional writer by then, and the week before I got my first book deal, then the day before my birthday I was offered a proper journalism job - so I did it with 24 hours to spare.”

Louise added: “Even though I was a published author from the age of 31 onwards, it was many, many years before I could earn a living just from writing.

"I always had to do bits of journalism or broadcasting or teaching creative writing to make ends meet.

"I couldn’t afford to be a full-time author until Apple Tree Yard, which was my seventh novel.

"That’s very common. Very few writers can earn a living just by their pens, even ones you might think of as very successful are often doing other jobs as well.”

Authors often have very different regimes and rituals when it comes to writing their books and Louise has her own recipe: “My novels always evolve as I write them.

"I don’t have a fully-fledged idea when I begin at all.

"I usually begin with a particular scene: for instance, with Apple Tree Yard, I had a very strong image of a woman on the witness stand at the Old Bailey giving evidence in her own trial.

"I didn’t know who she was, or even what she was being tried for, all I knew was that she was about to be exposed in a very damaging lie. I started from that image then just kept going.”

So what’s next for Louise?

“I’m in the final throes of a new novel, which is due to be published next year by my publisher Faber and Faber, but only if I finish it,” she added.

"The world of television is incredibly greedy and time-consuming and I would like to do some more but I have to balance it with writing books, at the moment I have two jobs, life is busy.”