The Abbey (documentary)
Encyclopedia
The Abbey — or The Abbey with Alan Bennett — is a three-part BBC TV documentary
written and hosted by playwright Alan Bennett
and directed by Jonathan Stedall. It is a personal tribute to, and tour of, Westminster Abbey
.
This film is the video equivalent of an erudite tourist visit and is structured as “a day in the life” of the Abbey. Bennett's presentation has been criticized as at times painfully slow, wry, and effete, but it includes a wealth of amusing and informative anecdotes, citations, and historical fact.
In 1996, the documentary was broadcast by PBS in the US in a 90-minute version called Westminster Abbey.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
written and hosted by playwright Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
and directed by Jonathan Stedall. It is a personal tribute to, and tour of, Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
.
This film is the video equivalent of an erudite tourist visit and is structured as “a day in the life” of the Abbey. Bennett's presentation has been criticized as at times painfully slow, wry, and effete, but it includes a wealth of amusing and informative anecdotes, citations, and historical fact.
Episodes
- Programme One, A Royal Peculiar (56 minutes) offers a thorough tour of the Abbey. Bennett watches the early morning rituals of the "Abbey family," the people who tune the organ, dust the statues, deliver the milk, attend the first service of the day, and provides a general introduction to the layout and history of the place. Later, mingling with the public tours, he visits some of the multitude of graves in the Abbey, including those of Edward the ConfessorEdward the ConfessorEdward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
, Chaucer, Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Tomb of the Unknown WarriorThe Unknown WarriorThe British tomb of The Unknown Warrior holds an unidentified British soldier killed on a European battlefield during the First World War. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, London on 11 November 1920, simultaneously with a similar interrment of a French unknown soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in...
. He cites “the English liking for clubs" in the burial groupings, with architects in one corner, poets in another, and engineers in yet another. Westminster Abbey, as he observes, is "the Queen's Parish Church"—a "royal peculiar," answerable not to the Archbishop of CanterburyArchbishop of CanterburyThe Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
and the Church of EnglandChurch of EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, but direct to the British sovereign.
- Programme Two, Whom Would You Like to Be Seen Dead With? (53 minutes) Bennett's saunter through a day in the life of the Abbey continues with visits to those interred in the poet's corner, including Lord Olivier, Lord Byron, the Brontë sisters, and Jane AustenJane AustenJane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
. It is revealed that many notables have had several different resting places—successive kings and queens would often re-arrange them according to their own preferences. Ongoing preservation efforts that maintain the building are examined. Bennett takes viewers high up in the north transept, as the head woodsmith and his crew battle dampness and woodwormWoodwormA woodworm is not a specific species. It is the larval stage of certain woodboring beetles including:*Ambrosia beetles *Bark borer beetle / Waney edge borer *Common furniture beetle...
within the fabric of the building.
- Programme Three, A Mirror of England (50 minutes) visits the spot where every British monarch has been crowned since 1066 A.D. Bennett observes the Abbey's quiet evening rituals after the tourists have left—the boys' choir practice, a private tour given by the dean, and complineComplineCompline is the final church service of the day in the Christian tradition of canonical hours. The English word Compline is derived from the Latin completorium, as Compline is the completion of the working day. The word was first used in this sense about the beginning of the 6th century by St...
, the last service of the day. Bennett explores the ceremonial role of the Abbey within the Anglican Church, the room where the King James Version of the BibleBibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
was translated, and some of the many sculptures that decorate the Abbey's tombs. He presents a rare view of the 13th century "Great Pavement" ("CosmatiCosmatiThe Cosmati were a Roman family, seven members of which, for four generations, were skilful architects, sculptors and workers in decorative geometric mosaic, mostly for church floors...
pavement"), the beautiful mosaic flooring, usually covered, on which the Chair of State (King Edward's ChairKing Edward's ChairKing Edward's Chair, sometimes known as St Edward's Chair or The Coronation Chair, is the throne on which the British monarch sits for the coronation. It was commissioned in 1296 by King Edward I to contain the coronation stone of Scotland — known as the Stone of Scone — which he had captured from...
) stands at the CoronationCoronationA coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...
. We learn that half of the Abbey day is spent preparing for EvensongEvening Prayer (Anglican)Evening Prayer is a liturgy in use in the Anglican Communion and celebrated in the late afternoon or evening...
, its main, daily service. Awaiting their moment, the Abbey's lay vicars play darts upstairs while the choristers practice their singing. Then, we find ourselves alone with Bennett in the dead of night pondering the observation made by 19th century Dean Stanley, that Westminster Abbey is a "mirror of England." He concludes, "If we reflect that this unique place and its contents are what remains when greed, theft, violence, and occasional vindictiveness have done their work, but mitigated by an obstinate tradition of charity, tolerance, and magnanimity, then perhaps it is...or one may hope that it is...indeed a mirror of England.”
Production and distribution
Executive producer, John Drury; producer, Andrew Holmes; editor, Pip Heywood; director of photography, Mike Fox; sound, Keith Richardson. 180 minutes.In 1996, the documentary was broadcast by PBS in the US in a 90-minute version called Westminster Abbey.