Alan Bennett

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Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English author

Author

An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created....
, actor

Actor

An actor or actress is a person who acting in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio programming in that capacity....
, humorist and playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works may be written specifically to be performed by actors or they may be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance....
.

ett was born in Armley

Armley

Armley is a district in the west of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It starts less than a mile from Leeds City Centre....
in Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is located on the River Aire in West Yorkshire, England. It is the urban core and administrative centre of the wider metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds....
, Yorkshire. The son of a co-op

The Co-operative Group

Co-operative Group Limited, trading as The Co-operative Group, and the largest of the UK's businesses often collectively known as The Co-operative brand, is a United Kingdom consumers' co-operative, and one of the world's largest consumer-owned businesses, with over three million members and 85,000 employees across all its busines...
butcher, Bennett attended Leeds Modern School

Leeds Modern School

Leeds Modern School in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England was founded on 14 July 1845 by Mr S. Twist in Rossington Street as the Mathematical and Commercial School....
(now Lawnswood School

Lawnswood School

Lawnswood School is a state comprehensive school in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has about 1500 male and female pupils, aged 11–18....
), learned Russian

Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
at the Joint Services School for Linguists

Joint Services School for Linguists

The Joint Services School for Linguists was founded in 1951 by the Military of the United Kingdom to provide language training, principally in Russian language, and largely to selected conscripts undergoing National Service....
during his National Service

National service

National service is a common name for mandatory or voluntary government service programs . National service was common in the 20th century, and many young people spent one or more years in such programs....
, and gained a place at Sidney Sussex College

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Sidney Sussex College was founded in 1596 and named after its foundress, Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex. It is one of the 31 Colleges that make up the University of Cambridge....
, Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge , located in Cambridge, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation university in the Anglosphere....
. However, having spent time in Cambridge during national service, and partly wishing to follow the object of his unrequited love, he decided to apply for a scholarship at Oxford University

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford , located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation in the English-speaking world....
.

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Biography

Early years

Bennett was born in Armley

Armley

Armley is a district in the west of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It starts less than a mile from Leeds City Centre....
in Leeds

Leeds

The Co-operative Group

Leeds Modern School

Leeds Modern School in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England was founded on 14 July 1845 by Mr S. Twist in Rossington Street as the Mathematical and Commercial School....
(now Lawnswood School

Lawnswood School

Lawnswood School is a state comprehensive school in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has about 1500 male and female pupils, aged 11–18....
), learned Russian

Russian language

Joint Services School for Linguists

National service

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Sidney Sussex College was founded in 1596 and named after its foundress, Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex. It is one of the 31 Colleges that make up the University of Cambridge....
, Cambridge

University of Cambridge

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford , located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation in the English-speaking world....
. He was accepted by Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford of the University of Oxford in England and the 4th oldest college of the University....
and went on to receive a first-class degree in history

HIStory

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double album by Michael Jackson, released on June 20, 1995, and is Jackson's ninth. The first disc, named "HIStory Begins" consists of a selection of Jackson's greatest hits from the singer's past fifteen years, while the second, named "HIStory Continues" features new songs, with the...
. While at Oxford he performed comedy with a number of future successful actors in the Oxford Revue

The Oxford Revue

The Oxford Revue is a comedy group featuring students from Oxford University, England....
. He was to remain at the university for several years, where he researched and taught Medieval History, before deciding he was not cut out to be an academic.

Career

In August 1960, Bennett, along with Dudley Moore

Dudley Moore

Dudley Stuart John Moore Order of the British Empire was an English people actor, comedian and musician.Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s and became famous as half of the hugely popular television double-act he formed with Peter Cook....
, Jonathan Miller

Jonathan Miller

Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller, Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom comedian, neurologist, theatre and opera director, author, television presenter, humorist and sculptor....
, and Peter Cook

Peter Cook

Peter Edward Cook was an English people satirist, writer and comedian. He is widely regarded as the leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s....
, achieved instant fame by appearing at the Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for several simultaneous Arts festival festivals that take place during August each year in Edinburgh, Scotland....
in the satirical

Satire

Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre; although, in practice, it is also found in the graphic arts and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improv...
revue Beyond the Fringe
Beyond the Fringe

Beyond the Fringe was a United Kingdom comedy stage revue written and performed by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller....
. After the Festival, the show continued in London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
and New York

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
. He also appeared in My Father Knew Lloyd George
My Father Knew Lloyd George

My Father Knew Lloyd George was a one-off BBC satire written by John Bird with additional material by the cast, and directed by Jack Gold. It aired in December 1965....
. A highly regarded television comedy sketch series On the Margin
On the Margin

On the Margin was a United Kingdom satirical comedy sketch show written and performed by Alan Bennett and a regular cast including John Sergeant and Madge Hindle....
(1966) was, unfortunately, erased: the BBC would habitually re-use the then-expensive videotape rather than keep it in the archives.

Around this time Bennett often found himself playing vicars, and claims that as an adolescent he assumed he would grow up to be a Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the State religion Christianity Ecclesia in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches....
clergyman, for no better reason than that he looked like one.

Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On
Forty Years On (play)

Forty Years On is a 1968 play by Alan Bennett. It was his first West End theatre....
, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor.

Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh is a Walt Disney Company Media franchise, based on animated fictional characters who have been featured as part of the List of Disney characters....
stories are also widely enjoyed.

Many of Bennett's characters are unfortunate and downtrodden, or meek and overlooked. Life has brought them to an impasse, or else passed them by altogether. In many cases they have met with disappointment in the realm of sex and intimate relationships, largely through tentativeness and a failure to connect with others.

Bennett is both unsparing and compassionate in laying bare his characters' frailties. This can be seen in his television plays for LWT in the late 1970s and the BBC in the early 1980s, and in the 1987 Talking Heads
Talking Heads (plays)

Talking Heads is a series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television by the acclaimed United Kingdom playwright Alan Bennett. The two series were first broadcast in 1988 and 1998, respectively....
series of monologues for television which were later performed at the Comedy Theatre

Comedy Theatre

The Comedy Theatre, is a West End Theatre, and opened on Panton Street in the City of Westminster, on 15 October 1881, as the Royal Comedy Theatre....
in London in 1992. This was a sextet of poignantly comic pieces, each of which depicted several stages in the character's decline from an initial state of denial or ignorance of their predicament, through a slow realization of the hopelessness of their situation, and progressing to a bleak or ambiguous conclusion. A second set of six Talking Heads pieces followed a decade later.

In his 2005 prose collection Untold Stories Bennett has written candidly and movingly of the mental illness that afflicted his mother and other family members. Much of his work draws on his Leeds background and while he is celebrated for his acute observations of a particular type of northern speech ("It'll take more than Dairy Box to banish memories of Pearl Harbor"), the range and daring of his work is often undervalued – his television play The Old Crowd, for example, includes shots of the director and technical crew, while his stage play The Lady in the Van includes two characters named Alan Bennett.

The Lady in the Van was based on his experiences with a tramp called Miss Shepherd who lived on Bennett's driveway in several dilapidated vans for over fifteen years. A radio play of the same title was broadcast on 21 February 2009 on BBC Radio 4, with actor Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith

Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, Order of the British Empire , better known as Maggie Smith, is a pre-eminent English film, Stage , and television actor who made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 56 years....
reprising her role of Miss Shepherd, and Alan Bennett playing himself. The work has also been published in book form.

In 1994 Bennett adapted his popular and much-praised 1991 play The Madness of George III for the cinema as The Madness of King George
The Madness of King George

The Madness of King George is a 1994 in film film directed by Nicholas Hytner and adapted by Alan Bennett from his own Play The Madness of George III ....
. The film received four Academy Award

Academy Awards

The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers....
nominations, including nominations for Bennett's writing and the performances of Nigel Hawthorne

Nigel Hawthorne

Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne Order of the British Empire was an English actor, perhaps best remembered for his role as Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary in the sitcom Yes Minister and the Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister....
and Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren

Dame Helen Mirren, Order of the British Empire is a multi-award winnning English actor. She has won an Academy Award, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes and four Emmy Awards during her career....
. It won the award for best art direction.

Bennett's critically-acclaimed The History Boys
The History Boys

The History Boys is a Play by English playwright Alan Bennett. The play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London on 18 May 2004. Its Broadway debut was on 23 April 2006 at the Broadhurst Theatre where there were 185 performances staged before it closed on 1 October 2006....
won three Laurence Olivier Awards in February 2005, for Best New Play, Best Actor (Richard Griffiths

Richard Griffiths

Richard Griffiths Order of the British Empire is an English actor of theatre, film and television. He has received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play, and the Tony Award for Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leadi...
), and Best Direction (Nicholas Hytner

Nicholas Hytner

Nicholas Robert Hytner is an English film and theatre producer and director, regarded by some as one of the most prolific and accomplished of his generation on either side of the Atlantic....
), having previously won Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and Evening Standard Awards

Evening Standard Awards

The Evening Standard Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are presented annually for outstanding achievements in West End theatre. Sponsored by the Evening Standard newspaper, they are announced in late November or early December....
for Best Actor and Best Play. Bennett himself received the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre.

The History Boys also went on to win six Tony Awards on Broadway, including best play, best performance by a leading actor in a play (Richard Griffiths

Richard Griffiths

Frances de la Tour

Frances de la Tour is an English actress perhaps best known for her role as Miss Ruth Jones in the United Kingdom sitcom Rising Damp, and as Olympe Maxime in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ....
), and best direction of a play (Nicholas Hytner

Nicholas Hytner

Nicholas Robert Hytner is an English film and theatre producer and director, regarded by some as one of the most prolific and accomplished of his generation on either side of the Atlantic....
).

A film version of The History Boys was released in the UK on 13 October 2006. Bennett discussed the play and its themes in an interview on STV

STV

STV is the brand used by both ITV licensees in Northern and Central Scotland, formerly known as Grampian Television and Scottish Television respectively....
.

Bennett was made an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford in 1987. He was also awarded a D.Litt by the University of Leeds

University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is a major teaching and research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire and, with over 33,000 full-time students, one of the largest universities in the United Kingdom....
in 1990 and a hon PhD from Kingston in 1996. However in 1998 Bennett refused an honorary doctorate from Oxford University, in protest at its accepting funding for a named chair in honour of press baron Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch

Keith Rupert Murdoch, Order of Australia, Order of St. Gregory the Great , usually known as Rupert Murdoch, is an Australian-born International Mass media business magnate....
. He also declined a CBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom....
in 1988 and a knighthood in 1996.

In September 2005, Bennett revealed that, in 1997, he had undergone treatment for cancer

Cancer

Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cell display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis . These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, do not invade or metastasize....
, and described the illness as a "bore". His chances of survival were given as being "much less" than 50%. He began Untold Stories (published 2005) thinking it would be published posthumously. In the event his cancer went into remission. In the autobiographical sketches which form a large part of the book Bennett writes openly for the first time about his homosexuality (Bennett has had relationships with women as well, although this is only touched upon in Untold Stories). Previously Bennett had referred to questions about his sexuality as being like asking a man dying of thirst to choose between Perrier

Perrier

Perrier is a brand of bottled water mineral water made from a spring in Verg?ze in the Gard d?partement of France. Perrier is naturally carbonated water....
or Malvern

Malvern, Worcestershire

Malvern is a town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England . It includes the settlements of Great Malvern, Barnards Green, Malvern Link , Malvern Wells, West Malvern, Little Malvern and North Malvern....
mineral water.

Bennett earned Honorary Membership of The Coterie

The Coterie

The Coterie comprised a fashionable and famous set of England aristocrats and intellectuals of the 1910s, widely quoted and profiled in magazines and newspapers of the period....
in the 2007 membership list.

Bennett has lived in Camden Town

Camden Town

Camden Town is the name of an area within the London Borough of Camden, situated in London, England. It is occasionally shortened to Camden....
in London for thirty one years, and shares his home with Rupert Thomas, his partner for the last fourteen years.

In October 2008 Bennett announced that he was donating his entire archive of working papers, unpublished manuscripts, diaries and books to the Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest library in Europe, and in England is second in size only to the British Library....
free of charge, stating that it was a gesture of thanks repaying a debt he felt he owed to the UK's social welfare system that had given him educational opportunities which his humble family background would otherwise never have afforded.

Bennett wrote the play Enjoy in 1980. It was one of the rare flops in his career, and barely scraped a run of seven weeks. But a new production of Enjoy has had critics raving about it during its 2008 UK tour and moved to the London West End in January 2009. The West End show had taken over £1m in advance ticket sales and even extended the run to cope with demand.

At the National Theatre in late 2009 Nicholas Hytner is scheduled to direct Bennett's new play, as yet untitled, about the relationship between the poet W.H.Auden and the composer Benjamin Britten.

Work

Television

My Father Knew Lloyd George (also writer), 1965
Famous Gossips, 1965
Plato—The Drinking Party, 1965
Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (1966 film)

Alice in Wonderland was an adaptation for BBC television of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was directed by Jonathan Miller, then most widely known for his appearance in the long-running satirical revue Beyond the Fringe....
, 1966
On the Margin series (actor & writer), 1966-67
A Day Out (also writer), 1972
Sunset Across the Bay (also writer), 1975
A Little Outing (also writer), 1975
A Visit from Miss Prothero (writer), 1978
Me—I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf (writer), 1978
Doris and Doreen (Green Forms) (writer), 1978
The Old Crowd (writer) with Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Anderson

Lindsay Gordon Anderson was an Indian-born England feature film, theatre and documentary film director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave....
(director), LWT 1979
Afternoon Off
Afternoon Off

Afternoon Off is a 1979 television play by Alan Bennett. Broadcast under the umbrella title Six Plays by Alan Bennett it was produced for London Weekend Television and directed by Stephen Frears....
(actor & writer), 1979
One Fine Day (writer), 1979
All Day On the Sands (writer), 1979
Objects of Affection (Our Winnie, A Woman of No Importance, Rolling Home, Marks, Say Something Happened, Intensive Care) (also writer), 1982
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597....
(actor), 1982
An Englishman Abroad
An Englishman Abroad

An Englishman Abroad is a 1983 BBC television drama, based on the true story of a chance meeting of an actress, Coral Browne, with Guy Burgess, one of the famous group of Cambridge Five who worked for the Soviet Union whilst with MI6....
(writer), 1983
The Insurance Man (writer), 1986
Breaking Up, 1986
Man and Music (narrator), 1986
Talking Heads
Talking Heads (plays)

Talking Heads is a series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television by the acclaimed United Kingdom playwright Alan Bennett. The two series were first broadcast in 1988 and 1998, respectively....
(A Chip in the Sugar, Bed Among the Lentils, A Lady of Letters, Her Big Chance, Soldiering On, A Cream Cracker Under the Settee) (also writer), 1987
Down Cemetery Road: The Landscape of Philip Larkin (presenter), 1987
Fortunes of War
Fortunes of War (tv series)

Fortunes of War is a 1987 BBC television adaptation of Olivia Manning's cycle of novels Fortunes of War , which stars Kenneth Branagh as Guy Pringle, lecturer in English Literature in Bucharest during the early part of the Second World War, and Emma Thompson as his wife Harriet....
series (actor), 1987
Dinner at Noon (narrator), 1988
Poetry in Motion (presenter), 1990
102 Boulevard Haussmann (writer), 1990
A Question of Attribution
A Question of Attribution

A Question of Attribution is a 1991 television play written by Alan Bennett and commissioned by the BBC. Directed by John Schlesinger, it starred James Fox as Anthony Blunt and Prunella Scales as Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom....
(writer), 1991
Selling Hitler, 1991
Poetry in Motion 2 (presenter), 1992
Portrait or Bust (presenter), 1994
The Abbey
The Abbey (documentary)

The Abbey or The Abbey with Alan Bennett is a three-part BBC TV Documentary film written and hosted by playwright Alan Bennett and directed by Jonathan Stedall....
(presenter), 1995
A Dance to the Music of Time
A Dance to the Music of Time

A Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by Anthony Powell, inspired by the painting of the same name by Nicolas Poussin....
(actor), 1997
Talking Heads 2
Talking Heads (plays)

Talking Heads is a series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television by the acclaimed United Kingdom playwright Alan Bennett. The two series were first broadcast in 1988 and 1998, respectively....
, 1998
Telling Tales (writer, as himself), 2000

Stage

Better Late, 1959
Beyond the Fringe
Beyond the Fringe

Beyond the Fringe was a United Kingdom comedy stage revue written and performed by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller....
(also co-writer), 1960
The Blood of the Bambergs, 1962
A Cuckoo in the Nest, 1964
Forty Years On
Forty Years On (play)

Forty Years On is a 1968 play by Alan Bennett. It was his first West End theatre....
(also writer), 1968
Sing a Rude Song (co-writer), 1969
Getting On (writer), 1971
Habeas Corpus
Habeas Corpus (play)

Habeas Corpus is a comedy stage play by the English author Alan Bennett. It was first performed at the Lyric Theatre in London on 10 May 1973, with Alec Guinness and Margaret Courtenay in the lead roles....
(also writer), 1973
The Old Country (writer), 1977
Enjoy (writer), 1980
Kafka's Dick
Kafka's Dick

Kafka's Dick is a 1986 Play by Alan Bennett. It is play about the nature of fame and how reputations are made....
(writer), 1986
A Visit from Miss Prothero (writer), 1987
Single Spies (An Englishman Abroad and A Question of Attribution) (also writer and director), 1988
The Wind in the Willows (adaptation), 1990
The Madness of George III
The Madness of George III (play)

The Madness of George III is a 1991 Play by Alan Bennett. It is a fictionalised biography study of the latter half of the reign of George III of Great Britain, his battle with mental illness and the inability of his court to handle his condition....
(writer), 1991
Talking Heads (Waiting for the telegram, A Chip in the Sugar, Bed Among the Lentils, A Lady of Letters, Her Big Chance, Soldiering On, A Cream Cracker Under the Settee) (also writer), 1992
The History Boys
The History Boys

The History Boys is a Play by English playwright Alan Bennett. The play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London on 18 May 2004. Its Broadway debut was on 23 April 2006 at the Broadhurst Theatre where there were 185 performances staged before it closed on 1 October 2006....
(writer), 2004; Winner of Tony Award for Best Play
Tony Award for Best Play

The Tony Award is an annual award celebrating achievements in live United States theatre, including musical theatre, honoring productions on Broadway theatre in New York....
, 2006.

Film

Long Shot
Long shot

In photography, film and video, a long shot typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings; however, it is not as far away as an extreme long shot would be....
, 1980
Dreamchild
Dreamchild

Dreamchild is a 1985 in film drama film produced by Verity Lambert, film director by Gavin Millar and written by Dennis Potter. It stars Coral Browne, Ian Holm, Peter Gallagher, Nicola Cowper and Amelia Shankley and is a fictionalized account of Alice Liddell, the child who inspired Lewis Carroll's famous Alice in Wonderland stories...
(voice only), 1985
The Secret Policeman's Ball
The Secret Policeman's Balls

The shows have yielded movies, TV specials, home-videos, albums and books that have been distributed worldwide and had a considerable international impact....
, 1986
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball

The show took place in London in September 1981. It was a successor to the 1979 show The Secret Policeman's Ball .The show was directed by Monty Python alumnus John Cleese and produced by Martin Lewis & Peter Walker ....
, 1982
A Private Function
A Private Function

A Private Function is a 1984 in film United Kingdom comedy film starring Michael Palin and Maggie Smith. The film was predominantly filmed in Ilkley and Ben Rhydding, West Yorkshire....
(screenplay), 1986
Pleasure At Her Majesty's
Pleasure At Her Majesty's

Pleasure At Her Majesty's was the name given to the filmed release of A Poke In The Eye , the first of the Amnesty International comedy benefit galas....
, 1987
Prick Up Your Ears
Prick Up Your Ears

Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 film about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the book by John Lahr....
(screenplay), 1987
Little Dorrit
Little Dorrit (film)

Little Dorrit is a 1988 in film film adaptation of the Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. It was written and directed by Christine Edzard, and produced by John Brabourne and Richard B....
, 1987
Wind in the Willows animated adaptation, 1994
Parson's Pleasure (writer), 1995
The Madness of King George
The Madness of King George

The Madness of King George is a 1994 in film film directed by Nicholas Hytner and adapted by Alan Bennett from his own Play The Madness of George III ....
(screenplay from his play "The Madness of George III"), 1995
The History Boys
The History Boys (film)

The History Boys is a British comedy film released in October 2006 in film. It was adapted by Alan Bennett from his Play of the same name, which won the 2005 Olivier Awards for Best New Play and the 2006 Tony Awards for Best Play....
(screenplay, from his play of the same name), 2006

Radio

The Great Jowett, 1980
Dragon, 1982
Uncle Clarence (writer, narrator), 1985
Better Halves (narrator), 1988
The Lady in the Van (writer, narrator), 1990
Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh, commonly shortened to Pooh Bear and once referred to as Edward Bear, is a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner ....
(narrator), 1990

Bibliography

*Beyond the Fringe (with Peter Cook
Peter Cook

Peter Edward Cook was an English people satirist, writer and comedian. He is widely regarded as the leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s....
, Jonathan Miller
Jonathan Miller

Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller, Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom comedian, neurologist, theatre and opera director, author, television presenter, humorist and sculptor....
, and Dudley Moore
Dudley Moore

Dudley Stuart John Moore Order of the British Empire was an English people actor, comedian and musician.Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s and became famous as half of the hugely popular television double-act he formed with Peter Cook....
). London: Souvenir Press, 1962, and New York: Random House, 1963

Forty Years On. London: Faber, 1969
Getting On. London: Faber, 1972
Habeas Corpus. London: Faber, 1973
The Old Country. London: Faber, 1978
Enjoy. London: Faber, 1980
Office Suite. London: Faber, 1981
Objects of Affection. London: BBC Publications, 1982
A Private Function. London: Faber, 1984
Forty Years On; Getting On; Habeas Corpus. London: Faber, 1985
The Writer in Disguise. London: Faber, 1985
Prick Up Your Ears: The Film Screenplay. London: Faber, 1987
Two Kafka Plays. London: Faber, 1987
Talking Heads. London: BBC Publications, 1988; New York: Summit, 1990
Single Spies. London: Faber, 1989

Winner of Olivier Award: England's best comedy for 1989

Single Spies and Talking Heads. New York: Summit, 1990
The Lady in the Van, 1989
Poetry in Motion (with others). 1990
The Wind in the Willows. London: Faber, 1991
Forty Years On and Other Plays. London: Faber, 1991
The Madness of George III. London: Faber, 1992
Poetry in Motion 2 (with others). 1992
Writing Home (memoir & essays). London: Faber, 1994 (winner of the 1995 British Book of the Year
British Book of the Year

The British Book of the Year Award is given annually and promoted by the United Kingdom publishing industry trade journal Publishing News, one of the British Book Awards....
award).
The Madness of King George (screenplay), 1995
Father ! Father ! Burning Bright (prose version of 1982 TV script, Intensive Care), 1999
The Laying on of Hands (Stories), 2000
The Clothes They Stood Up In (novella), 2001
Untold Stories (autobiographical and essays), London, Faber/Profile Books, 2005, ISBN 0-571-22830-5
The Uncommon Reader
The Uncommon Reader

The Uncommon Reader is a novella by Alan Bennett. After appearing first in the London Review of Books, Vol. 29, No. 5 , it was published later the same year in book form by Faber & Faber....
(novella), 2007

Die souveräne Leserin (German, 2008)

Translations
Català

Una lectora poc corrent, 2008

French

Soins intensifs, 2006

German

Der Rote Baron, Sein letzter Flug, 2001
Vater, Vater, lichterloh, 2002
Così fan tutte, (previously published as Alle Jahre wieder) 2003
Die Lady im Lieferwagen, 2004
Handauflegen, 2005
Die souveräne Leserin, 2008

Italian

La pazzia di re Giorgio, 1996
Nudi e crudi, 2001
La cerimonia del massaggio, 2002
La signora nel furgone, 2003
Signore e signori, 2004
Scritto sul corpo, 2006
La sovrana lettrice, 2007
Il letto di lenticchie

Spanish

Una Patata Frita en el Azúcar, 2003
Una Cama Entre Lentejas, 2003
Una Señora de Letras, 2003
Su Gran Oportunidad, 2003
Ir Tirando, 2003
Una Galleta Crácker Bajo el Sofá, 2003
Una Mujer Sin Importancia, 2003
Con lo puesto, 2003 (The Clothes They Stood Up In)
La Señora del Furgón, 2004
La Mano de Dios, 2004
La Señorita Fozzard Hace Pie, 2004
Jugando a los Bocadillos, 2004
Una lectora nada común", 2008
El Perro en el Patio, 2004
Noches en los Jardines de España, 2004
Esperando el Telegrama, 2004

External links

from
interview at stv.tv
Stv.tv

www.stv.tv is the Uniform Resource Locator of the website of the Scotland television channel, STV. The website currently offers the usual sections of News, Sport, Entertainment, Weather, Competitions, Internet forum and STV programme information, with TV listings....
- UK publisher of many of Alan Bennett's plays, as well as Writing Home and Untold Stories (with Profile Books)

Alan Bennett

Biography

Early years

Career

Work

Television

Stage

Film

Radio

Bibliography

Translations

Further reading

External links