Alan Bennett | |
|---|---|
 Bennett in 1973; photographed byAllan Warren | |
| Born | (1934-05-09)9 May 1934 (age 90) |
| Alma mater | Exeter College, Oxford |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1960–present |
| Partner | Rupert Thomas |
Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. He has received numerousawards and honours including fourBAFTA Awards, fourLaurence Olivier Awards, and twoTony Awards. In 2005 he received theSociety of London Theatre Special Award.
Bennett was born inLeeds and attendedOxford University. He taughtmedieval history at the university for several years. His work in the satirical revueBeyond the Fringe at the 1960Edinburgh Festival brought him instant fame and later aSpecial Tony Award. He turned to writing full time and gained acclaim with his plays at theRoyal National Theatre. The following plays were adapted into films:The Madness of King George (1994),The History Boys (2005), andThe Lady in the Van (2015).
Bennett was born on 9 May 1934 inArmley,Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire.[1] The younger son of aCo-op butcher, Walter, and his wife, Lilian Mary (née Peel), Bennett attended Christ Church, Upper Armley, Church of England School (in the same class asBarbara Taylor Bradford), and thenLeeds Modern School (nowLawnswood School). He has an older brother.[2]
Bennett learned Russian at theJoint Services School for Linguists during hisnational service before applying for ascholarship at Oxford University. He was accepted byExeter College, Oxford, and graduated with afirst-class degree in history. While at Oxford he performed comedy with a number of eventually successful actors in theOxford Revue. He remained at the university for several years, working as a junior lecturer ofMedieval History atMagdalen College,[3] before deciding, in 1960, that he was not suited to being an academic.
In August 1960, Bennett – along withDudley Moore,Jonathan Miller andPeter Cook – gained fame after an appearance at theEdinburgh Festival in the satirical revueBeyond the Fringe, with the show continuing in London and New York. He also appeared inMy Father Knew Lloyd George. His television comedy sketch seriesOn the Margin (1966) was erased; theBBC re-used expensive videotape rather than keep it in the archives. However, in 2014 it was announced that audio copies of the entire series had been found.[4]
Bennett's first stage play,Forty Years On, directed byPatrick Garland and starringJohn Gielgud, was produced in 1968. His second play,Getting On, also directed by Garland and starringKenneth More, opened in 1971. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose, and broadcasting and many appearances as an actor.
Despite a long history with both theNational Theatre and the BBC, Bennett never writes on commission, saying "I don't work on commission, I just do iton spec. If people don't want it then it's too bad."[5]
Bennett's many works for television include his first play for the medium,A Day Out in 1972,A Little Outing in 1977,Intensive Care in 1982,An Englishman Abroad in 1983, andA Question of Attribution in 1991.[6] But perhaps his most famous screen work is the 1988Talking Heads series of monologues for television which were later performed at theComedy Theatre in London in 1992. A second set of sixTalking Heads followed a decade later.
Bennett wrote the playEnjoy in 1980. It barely scraped a run of seven weeks at theVaudeville Theatre, in spite of the stellar cast ofJoan Plowright,Colin Blakely,Susan Littler, Philip Sayer,Liz Smith (who replacedJoan Hickson during rehearsals) and, in his first West End role,Marc Sinden. It was directed byRonald Eyre.[7] A new production ofEnjoy attracted very favourable notices during its 2008 UK tour[8] and moved to the West End of London in January 2009.[9] The West End show took more than £1 million in advance ticket sales[10] and even extended the run to cope with demand.[11] The production starredAlison Steadman,David Troughton, Richard Glaves, Carol Macready andJosie Walker.
Bennett wroteThe Lady in the Van based on his experiences with an eccentric woman calledMiss Shepherd, who lived on Bennett's driveway in a series of dilapidated vans for more than fifteen years. It was first published in 1989 as an essay in theLondon Review of Books. In 1990 he published it in book form. In 1999 he adapted it into a stage play, which starredMaggie Smith and was directed byNicholas Hytner. The stage play includes two characters named Alan Bennett. On 21 February 2009 it was broadcast as a radio play on BBC Radio 4, with Maggie Smith reprising her role and Alan Bennett playing himself. He adapted the story again for a 2015 film, with Maggie Smith reprising her role again, and Nicholas Hytner directing again. In the filmAlex Jennings plays the two versions of Bennett, although Alan Bennett appears in a cameo at the very end of the film.
Bennett adapted his 1991 playThe Madness of George III for the cinema. EntitledThe Madness of King George (1994), the film received fourAcademy Award nominations: for Bennett's writing and the performances ofNigel Hawthorne andHelen Mirren. It won the award for best art direction.
In 1995 Bennett wrote and hosted the three-part BBC documentary seriesThe Abbey, directed byJonathan Stedall. The programme provides a personal tribute to, and tour of,Westminster Abbey.[12]
Bennett's critically acclaimedThe History Boys won threeLaurence Olivier Awards in 2005, for Best New Play, Best Actor (Richard Griffiths), and Best Direction (Nicholas Hytner), having previously wonCritics' Circle Theatre Awards andEvening Standard Awards for Best Actor and Best Play. Bennett also received the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre.[13]The History Boys won sixTony Awards on Broadway, including best play, best performance by a leading actor in a play (Richard Griffiths), best performance by a featured actress in a play (Frances de la Tour) and best direction of a play (Nicholas Hytner). A film version ofThe History Boys was released in the UK in October 2006. In his 2005 prose collectionUntold Stories, Bennett wrote of the mental illness that his mother and other family members suffered.
At theNational Theatre in late 2009Nicholas Hytner directed Bennett's playThe Habit of Art, about the relationship between the poetW. H. Auden and the composerBenjamin Britten.[14]
Bennett's playPeople opened at the National Theatre in October 2012.[15] In December that year,Cocktail Sticks, an autobiographical play by Bennett, premièred at the National Theatre as part of a double bill with the monologueHymn.[16] The production was directed by Bennett's long-term collaborator Nicholas Hytner. It was well-received, and transferred to theDuchess Theatre in theWest End of London, being subsequently adapted for radio broadcast byBBC Radio 4.[17]
In July 2018,Allelujah!, a comic drama by Bennett about aNational Health Service hospital threatened with closure, opened at London'sBridge Theatre to critical acclaim.[18]
Bennett lived for 40 years onGloucester Crescent inCamden Town, London, and in 2006 moved a few minutes' walk away toPrimrose Hill with his partner Rupert Thomas, the former editor ofThe World of Interiors magazine.[19][20] Bennett also had a long-term relationship with his former housekeeper, Anne Davies, until her death in 2009.[21]
Bennett is an agnostic.[22] He was raisedAnglican and gradually "left it [the church] over the years".[23]
In 1988, Bennett declined the award ofCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and in 1996 declined aknighthood.[24]
In September 2005, Bennett revealed that, in 1997, he had undergone treatment forcolorectal cancer and described the illness as a "bore". His chances of survival were given as being "much less" than 50 per cent and surgeons had told him they removed a "rock-bun" sized tumour.[25] He beganUntold Stories (published 2005) thinking it would be published posthumously, but his cancer went into remission.
In the autobiographical sketches which form a large part of the book Bennett says of himself "I am homosexual", but also mentions "flings" with women. Previously Bennett had referred to questions about his sexuality as like asking a man who has just crawled across theSahara desert to choose betweenPerrier orMalvern mineral water.[26]
In October 2008, Bennett announced that he was donating his entire archive of working papers, unpublished manuscripts, diaries and books to theBodleian Library, stating that it was a gesture of thanks repaying a debt he felt he owed to theBritish welfare state that had given him educational opportunities which his humble family background would otherwise never have afforded.[27]
In September 2015, Bennett endorsedJeremy Corbyn's campaign in theLabour Party leadership election.[28] The following month, after Corbyn's election victory, Bennett said: "I approve of him. If only because it brings Labour back to what they ought to be thinking about."[29]
Following the death ofJonathan Miller in 2019, Bennett became the only surviving member of the originalBeyond the Fringe quartet which had also includedPeter Cook andDudley Moore.[30]
For many years Bennett has owned a cottage inClapham in the Yorkshire Dales.[21][31]
Selected credits
Bennett was made an Honorary Fellow ofExeter College, Oxford, in 1987. He was also awarded aD.Litt by theUniversity of Leeds in 1990[33] and an honorary doctorate fromKingston University in 1996. In 1998 he refused an honorary doctorate from Oxford University, in protest at its acceptance of funding for a chair from press baronRupert Murdoch.[34] He also declined aCBE in 1988 and a knighthood in 1996.[35] He has stated that, although he is not a republican, he would never wish to be knighted, saying it would be a bit like having to wear a suit for the rest of his life.[36]
In December 2011, Bennett returned toLawnswood School, nearly 60 years after he left, to unveil the renamed Alan Bennett Library.[37] He said he "loosely" basedThe History Boys on his experiences at the school and his admission to Oxford. Lawnswood School dedicated its library to the writer after he emerged as a vocal campaigner against public library cuts.[38] Plans to shut local libraries were "wrong and very short-sighted", Bennett said, adding: "We're impoverishing young people."
Enfield, as Alan Bennett, as a Talking Heads Stalin, torn between curtain-fussery and genocide, was the most surreal vision this perfect pair have ever concocted, but worked
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