David Leland in Britain" won the Prix Italia (an international Television award) in 1984. In 1986 he wrote the screenplay for the thriller-drama "Mona Lisa", featuring Bob Hoskins. This film was critically acclaimed and Leland earned nominations for the Golden Globe and the Writers Guild of America. He then wrote "Personal Services" in 1986. It was directed by Terry Jones and was about Cynthia Payne, a real-life British madam who ran a private brothel. Julie Walters took the leading role. While "Personal Services" dealt with the adult life of Cynthia Payne, Leland's next film, "Wish You Were Here", concerned her teenage years.
Wish You Were Here (1987 film) her town's dull young men, Lynda has her first sexual experience with Dave but after she has slept with one of her father's middle-aged friends, her life changes. She becomes pregnant and her father, a somewhat rigid and conventional man, disowns her. Desperately she tries to seek an illegal abortion but in the end decides to become a mother. The film was based loosely on the memoirs of the British madam Cynthia Payne as an adolescent growing up on the Sussex coast. It was filmed in the Sussex towns of Brighton, Worthing and Bognor Regis. "Wish You Were Here" has