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.
Cynthia Payne an MP, a number of solicitors and company directors and several vicars". A cartoon in the press at the time, according to Sarah Baxter in "The Sunday Times", "showed a vicar in bed with a prostitute, confronted by a policeman. 'I demand to see my solicitor,' said the vicar, 'who is in the next bedroom.'" When the case came to trial in 1980, Payne was sentenced to eighteen months in prison, reduced to a fine and six months on appeal. She served four months in Holloway prison. In 1986, the police raided Payne’s home again, this time during a "special