Alan Bennett


Alan Bennett has been a household name in British theatre ever since he starred and co-authored the satirical review Beyond the Fringe with Dudley Moore, Peter Cooke and Jonathan Miller in 1960 at the Edinburgh Festival. Later the same show played to packed houses in London's West End and in New York. Although Bennett started by writing and acting for the stage, he very soon turned his attention to writing plays for television. Bennett's career, though less spectacular than those of his Fringe companions, has displayed greater diversity and more solid achievement. To many he is now regarded as perhaps the premier English dramatist of his generation. This is all the more surprising given the low-key themes and understated expression of the "ordinary people" who populate his dramatic world. Like the poetry of Philip Larkin, another Northerner whose writings he admires, his writing frequently focuses on the everyday and the mundane: sea-side holidays, lower-middle class pretensions, obsessions with class, cleanliness, propriety and sexual repression. Like Larkin, Bennett casts a loving as well as a critical eye on the objects of his irony revealing what underlies the apparently trivial language of his protagonists.

Many thanks to Dave W, Roger P and Susan S for contributions to this page.

Talking Heads Series

A Chip In The Sugar. (R) Middle-aged Graham Whittaker (who we learn is a repressed homosexual with a history of mild mental health problems) finds life becoming complicated as his mother, with whom he still lives, reunites with an old flame named Frank Turnbull. Graham becomes increasingly jealous when Mr Turnbull takes an ever-growing hold on Mam and his black and white, right wing opinions on things such as race and mental illness. Mr Turnbull proposes to Graham's mother and suggests that Graham moves out of the house to a hostel.

A Cream Cracker Under The Sette. (R) A Cream Cracker under the Settee is played out as a monologue by Doris (Thora Hird), a seventy-five year old woman who is a widow, following her fall from the buffet (stool). Her disapproval of home-help, Zulema's cleaning leads her to attempt to clean a picture of her and Wilfred, her late husband, and subsequently her fall. Her position, now of suffering from a "numby" leg, gives her natural desire to find help.

A Lady Of Letters. (R) A Lady of Letters is about a woman called Irene Ruddock, who is not afraid to speak, or rather write, her mind: she writes letters to her MP, the police, the chemist - everyone she can, to remedy the social ills she sees around her. After one too many accusations of misconduct from Irene's pen, she is sent to prison.

A Woman Of No Importance. (R) Peggy Schofield, clerical worker and self-described linchpin of her office, finds that when her strict regime is disrupted, her world crumbles around her. Her health deteriorates and she is rapidly spirited away to hospital, where she reconstructs her office routine, appropriating doctors, other hospital staff and patients as replacements for her co-workers.

Bed Among The Lentils. (R) Susan, an alcoholic, nervous vicar's wife who has to travel into Leeds to go to the off-licence because of her debts with the local shop keeper, distracts herself from her ambitious, and, as she sees him, vainly insensitive husband and his doting parishioners by conducting an affair with a nearby grocer, Ramesh Ramesh the third, discovering something about herself and God in the process.

Her Big Chance. (R) Lesley is an aspiring actress, who, after a series of unpromising extra roles on television programmes such as Crossroads, finds what she believes to be her big break as the adventurous Travis in a new film for the West German market. It is not clear to what extent Lesley understands that she is appearing in a soft pornographic film. .

Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet. (R) Miss Fozzard is a lonely, middle-aged department store clerk in the Soft Furnishings Department whose free time is mostly spent caring for her brother after he suffers a stroke. Her one joy in life is her regular visits to her podiatrist, but when he retires, she finds her life consumed with a burgeoning relationship with his replacement, a decidedly kinky fellow with an all-consuming foot fetish. While Miss Fozzard would be the last to admit it, she ventures into benign prostitution as she allows her new podiatrist to pay her to model a variety of footwear whilst also indulging in other activities. It is this that gives her the satisfaction her life was missing, as she begins to stop caring what other people think.

Nights In The Gardens Of Spain. (R) Rosemary Horrocks is a lonely woman whose husband is intent on moving them both to Marbella. Unknown to him, Rosemary does not wish to go. She takes it upon herself to tend to a female neighbour's garden after the latter is arrested for murdering her abusive husband. The two women become close friends in a tender relationship which has the potential to bring both of them real happiness. As the case of her newfound friend is investigated, a darker and more perverted side of Rosemary's own husband is revealed. Sadly, Rosemary's neighbour dies of cancer before the potential of their friendship can be fully realised and Rosemary must passively continue with the non-marriage she has with her highly repressed, golf-playing husband.

Playing Sandwiches. (R) Wilfred is, we discover over time, a reformed paedophile living under a false identity and working as a much-praised maintenance man in a public park. However, as a superior begins to pressure him for bureaucratic historical information to include in his personnel file, the pressure causes Wilfred to resume his old ways with horrifying results. Incarcerated, he contemplates his condition, remarking 'It's the one part of my life that feels right... and that's the bit that's wrong.'

Soldering On. (R) Muriel is a strong woman, and always has been — a pillar of the community, a regular charity worker, and a volunteer for Meals on Wheels; and looking after her mentally ill daughter, Margaret, has fortified her resolve — so, after the death of her husband, Muriel is well-prepared to cope with the crisis. However, given her son's ineptitude (or dishonesty) with money, and the vile secret behind Margaret's illness, Muriel finds that she needs to adapt in order to 'soldier on.'

The Hand Of God. (R) Celia is a covetous antiques dealer who brazenly aids elderly neighbours for the sole purpose of being in a good position to buy their treasures on the cheap when they die. She's particularly put out when one elderly woman whom she's cared for, living in a house chock full of antiques, dies and leaves everything to a distant Canadian relative. Celia is somewhat soothed when the Canadian gives her a small box of the woman's things, which includes a curious drawing of a finger. Celia is particularly pleased that she makes a hundred pounds selling the picture, but then later learns to her horror that it is a lost Michelangelo masterpiece worth millions, which the buyer says on national television he bought in a "junk shop." The figure is a study of the central image of the hand of God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The Outside Dog. (R) Clean freak Marjory gradually comes to realise that her husband, Stuart, who works in a slaughterhouse, is using his employment to cover the fact that he's a particularly dangerous criminal. He regularly goes out with his Alsatian, Tina, (whom Majory has barred from entering the house), and returns late at night. This usually culminates in brutal sexual advances which Marjory finds distasteful but feels powerless to reject. She is so alienated from the outside world that she subsumes all emotion in her domestic routine - her control of which becomes gradually more threatened as her husband becomes the subject of both police and media attention. When he is arrested and tried for a series of murders, Marjory struggles to maintain a low profile, and to continue with her routine as normal, but in the process discovers a damning piece of evidence which links her husband to the killings. However, she receives a telephone call announcing that he has been acquitted (due to lack of evidence) before she is able to decide upon a course of action. When he returns home, Majory now has to deal with the horrific realisation that she'll be sharing her home with a serial murderer. As an ultimate sign of her lapsed control, Tina finally gains entry into the house.

Waiting For The Telegram. (R) Violet is a confused, elderly woman in a nursing home who has been told by the excited staff she will soon be receiving a congratulatory telegram from the Queen in honour of her one hundredth birthday. This, however, perplexes Violet as she wanders far back in her memory to an age where telegrams brought news of death on a battlefield. Violet ruminates about a long-lost love to her only real friend, a gay male nurse at the home named Francis, who ultimately dies of AIDS.

Triple Bill.

A Visit From Miss Prothero. Arthur Dodsworth has recently retired. He lives alone except for his budgie and memories of his late wife Winnie. One afternoon his nap is interrupted by the doorbell; his former secretary, Peggy Prothero, has come to visit. A brash, charmless woman who seems to take no pleasure in anything but putting people down, Miss Prothero wants to fill her old boss in on all the changes that have taken place at work since he left. Dodsworth isn't very curious, and as the visit wears on it puts a little strain on his politeness and patience. Miss Prothero doesn't enjoy it much either, but lingers on as there's a bombshell she wants to drop. The docketing system Dodsworth introduced thirty years earlier, which revolutionised the firm, has been scrapped by her adored new boss Mr Skinner. The crowning achievement of Dodsworth's career has just become obsolete, and she wants to tell him all about it. 1-3

Say Something Happened. A naive, inexperienced social worker calls on an elderly couple; but does she need more help than they do? 2-3

Two In Torquay. A middle-aged man and a middle-aged woman engage in polite conversation in a hotel on the Cornish Riviera. But neither is quite who they appear to be. Who is deceiving whom? 3-3
Forty Years On. The Headmaster has been at Albion House for fifty years, man and boy. Now he is retiring and takes part in the end-of-year entertainment for the last time. Entitled Speak For England, Arthur, It weaves together a multi-generational story of England: the glorious era at the turn of the century, when the summers were always golden: the fast-living inter-war years peopled by the Bloomsbury Group: and the growing cynicism of a country facing a second world war with the scars of the first still fresh in their memories.
Tongue-in-cheek, the play-within-a-play prompts an outraged response from the Headmaster, who can only see his beloved standards being mocked. Yet within the parody lies an almost painful nostalgia for a more peaceful age and the timeless misunderstanding of one generation by another.
Clever, funny and poignant, Alan Bennett's masterful play is rightly regarded as a modern classic.

An Englishman Abroad. Based on the true story of a chance meeting of an actress, Coral Browne, with Guy Burgess, a member of the Cambridge spy ring who worked for the Soviet Union whilst with MI6. Burgess had fled to the city following MI6 detection of his treason. Burgess barges into Browne's dressing room in the interval of a touring Old Vic productuion of Hamlet, in which she portrayed Gertrude, and charms her. Later on she is invited to his Moscow flat, finding it with some difficulty, to measure him for a suit that he would like ordered from his London tailor.

A Question Of Attribution. The play is based on Anthony Blunt's role in the Cambridge Spy Ring and, as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, personal art advisor to Queen Elizabeth II. It portrays his interrogation by MI5 officers, his work researching and restoring art, and his relationship with the Queen. Bennett described the piece as an "inquiry in which the circumstances are imaginary but the pictures are real". The New York Times called it a "razor-sharp psychological melodrama".
While supervising the restoration of a dual portrait attributed to Titian, Blunt discovers a further three figures that had been painted over. As Blunt's public exposure as a spy in 1979 draws near the play suggests that he has been made a scapegoat to protect others in the security service.
One of the main themes is over whether or not the Queen knew that Blunt was a former Soviet spy. In one scene Blunt discovers that a painting in the Queen's collection is a fake. When she is told this, the Queen discusses the nature of fakes and secrets. After she has left and an aide asks what they were talking about, Blunt replies "I was talking about art. I'm not sure that she was."

The History Boys. The action of the play takes place in Cutlers' Grammar School, Sheffield, a fictional boys' grammar school in the north of England. Set in the early 1980s, the play follows a group of history pupils preparing for the Oxbridge entrance examinations under the guidance of three teachers (Hector, Irwin and Lintott) with contrasting styles.
Hector, an eccentric teacher, delights in knowledge for its own sake, but the headmaster ambitiously wants the school to move up the academic league table; Irwin, a supply teacher, is hired to introduce a rather more cynical and ruthless style of teaching.
Hector is discovered sexually fondling a boy and later Irwin's latent homosexual inclinations emerge. 2 Parts

The Lady In The Van. The Lady in the Van is the first radio production of Alan Bennett's autobiographical stage play, starring Alan Bennett himself as one of the two "Alan Bennetts" featured in the drama, and reprising the brilliant stage performance of Dame Maggie Smith as Miss Mary Shepherd, the lady who takes refuge in his Camden garden for three months, and ends up staying fifteen years.
When Alan Bennett adapted his short autobiographical memoir The Lady in the Van, into a full length stage play, it received some excellent critical reviews. "One of the saddest, funniest and most distinguished offerings for years" wrote John Peter in the Sunday Times, while Charles Spencer, in the Daily Telegraph, thought it was "without doubt, the best new play of the year. Now Radio 4 brings this wonderfully bitter-sweet comic diary to the airwaves, with Maggie Smith once more playing the eccentric and cantankerous Miss Shepherd, and Alan Bennett and Adrian Scarborough playing the two Alan Bennetts - one in the role of the omniscient narrator, and one experiencing events as they occur.
Miss Shepherd was the genteel vagrant who parked her Bedford van near Mr. Bennett's Camden house in 1971 and eventually browbeat him into pushing it into the mini-driveway leading to his front door. And there she steadfastly remained until her death in 1989, emerging, every so often, to make a complaint, share a loony observation or simply fill Mr. Bennett's tiny garden with "a right Suzie Wong" - stench and filth that he compared to ''the inside of someone's ear."
But the play is as much about the author himself, as Miss Shepherd. What are Alan Bennett's motives in becoming landlord to such a lethally dotty tenant? Is he too feeble to reject her? Is he guiltily compensating for not spending enough time with his own mother (played here by Marcia Warren) Or is he, as his neighbours suggest, a modern-day saint? Was there (he suggests it himself) always part of him that wanted to exploit Miss Shepherd for literary profit? They play invites us both to ponder these questions, and asks what responsibility we ourselves have for the vagabonds who walk our streets and sometimes land up on our doorsteps.
But above all 'The Lady in the Van' is simply hugely enjoyable entertainment, now brought vividly to radio. Simon Morecoft composes original music in a production adapted and directed by the former Head of Radio Drama, Gordon House. 2 Parts

The Madness Of King George. The year is 1786. George III is King. King of England. He has a loving wife, a nation of subjects, a loyal parliament, and the world kneels at his feet....But he’s a little odd.
The king’s behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic, and word has it he’s addressed an oak tree as the King of Prussia! Doctors are called in, parliament falters, and the Prince Regent manoeuvres himself into power.
From the hand of national treasure Alan Bennett, author of The History Boys and Talking Heads, The Madness of George III is a brilliant exploration of duty and kingship, an epic play about the ties that bind us together as family, as a society and as a nation. Gripping drama, dangerous politics and irreverent comedy collide in a rollercoaster ride where the health of the nation is at the mercy of the mental health of one man. 2 Parts.

The Clothes They Stood Up In. Maurice and Rosemary Ransome are a typically dissatisfied, middle-aged, middle-class couple, childless and emotionally withdrawn. "They had no children and but for Mozart would probably have split up years ago. Mr Ransome always took a bath when he came home from work and then he had his supper. After supper he took another bath, this time in Mozart". However, one night, after returning from a performance of Cosi fanTutte, bath, supper, Mozart and everything disappeared. "There is a limit to what burglars can take: they seldom take easy chairs, for example, and even more seldom settees. These burglars did. They took everything".
What unfolds is a brilliant account of the ways in which the lives of the Ransomes are subtly but profoundly changed forever, as Rosemary discovers the joys of shopping at the local Pakistani shop and the limits of counselling, and Maurice fantasises about new CD equipment with which to listen to Mozart. However, just as life begins to return to normal, a letter arrives which throws new light on the Ransome's extraordinary burglary.

Telling Tales.
A Strip of Blue (R)
Our War (R)
An Ideal Home (R)
A Shy Butcher (R)
Days Out (R)
Proper Names (R)
Eating Out (R)
Aunt Evaline (R)
Unsaid Prayers (R)
No Mean City (R)

Untold Stories
Wanting To Go Unnoticed (R)
Dad (R)
Aunt Myra  (R)
Aunty Kathleen (R)
Mam (R)

More Untold Stories
Thora Hird (R)
Arise (R)
Seeing Stars (R)
A Common Assault (R)
Staring Out of the Window (R)

Kafka's Dick. Set in the present-day in a suburban Yorkshire dwelling, Kafka aficionado Sydney, and his wife Linda, are visited by Franz Kafka and his friend Max Brod who are both long dead. (Kafka had left instructions for all his works to be burned – instructions which Brod chose to ignore). As we spend time with the unusual party, it becomes clear that Kafka's wish was for anonymity – and also that he had serious issues with his father. When his parent turns up, he is in possession of a very personal secret relating to his son – one which Kafka is terrified he will disclose.

Peter Pan and Wendy. (R) On 27th December, 1904 - J M Barrie's play Peter Pan was given its first theatre performance. It was such a huge success that Barrie decided to publish the story in prose, with Peter And Wendy appearing in 1911. Alan Bennett.reads the story of the boy who wouldn't grow up and his impact on a family.