ALAN BENNETT
RADIO PLAYS
Born Leeds, 1934. Exeter College, Oxford 1954-7. Stage debut 1959; wrote and appeared in Beyond the Fringe, 1960; first stage play Forty years On, 1968; has worked as writer, actor, director, and broadcaster for stage, television, radio and films.
Broadcast by BBC radio:
| 2015 R4 | Cocktail Sticks | | |
| 2014 R4 | Denmark Hill | | |
| 2009 R4 | The Lady in the Van | | |
| 2006 R4 | The History Boys | | |
| 2004 R4 | Last of the Sun | | |
| 19.5.03 R4 | Two in Torquay 15m | |
| 1994 R4 | The Wind in the Willows, dram | |
| 29.10.1994 WS | An Englishman Abroad | |
| c1994 | Diaries (1-4) | |
| 24.2.1991 | Kafka`s Dick | |
| 1991 | Talking Heads (several monologues originally written for television) | |
| c1990 | Getting On | |
| 18.4.1989 | Say Something Happened | |
| 1988 | Better Halves (narrator) | |
| 1988 | The lady in the van (writer & narrator) | |
| 1986 | Uncle Clarence | |
| 01.01.86 | A woman of no importance | |
| 1982 | Dragon | |
| 1980 | The Great Jowett | |
| 10.8.1975 | Forty Years On: John Gielgud/A. Bennett/D. Reynolds/N. Nicholson/Paul Eddington | |
| 11.8.1973 | Forty Years On: John Gielgud/A. Bennett/D. Reynolds/N. Nicholson/Paul Eddington
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OTHERS
NOTES
3 Jan 2015: Saturday Play: Cocktail Sticks
By Alan Bennett. An autobiographical play where Alan reflects on his early life with affection and some sadness. He and his mother had thought that the lives of others were somehow richer and better than their own. Now he's older, it's clear, looking back, that this was quite untrue. The material is drawn from his memoirs, adapted by Gordon House from a production by Nicholas Hytner which was on at the National Theatre in 2012. Narrator: Alan Bennett, Alan Bennett....Alex Jennings, Mum....Gabrielle Lloyd, Dad and Neville Coghill (the Chaucer man) .... Jeff Rawle; other parts played by Sue Wallace and Derek Hutchinson. Producer: Gordon House.
....ND comment:
Very warm play illustrating what AB does superbly; putting his past under the microscope, and making sense of it. The story is touching and poignant and acutely observed. We hear from the teenager, the middle-aged man, and the elderly, respected writer. The two Alans (AB himself and Alex Jennings) are uncannily alike, separated by half a lifetime. There's also a mention of Russell Harty, who was taught History by a person I used to work with ... it's a small world.
The play received a long and favourable write-up by Gillian Reynolds in the Daily Telegraph, 7 Jan 15. Here's my summary of part of it:
...Gordon House always brings out Alan Bennett's words in exactly the right way, higlighting the tune in the words and the careful arrangement of voices. In this play, with Bennett as narrator, it worked well, turning the trio of Alan, Mam and Dad into a quartet. Bennett's own, grown-older voice balanced the harmony perfectly.
When radio sounds right, the inner eye can see every detail in the scenes. I saw the kitchen cupboard in Mam's empty house at the start of the play, with its dried-up crystallised cherries; the tube of cocktail sticks hidden behind the dessicated coconut.
During his narration, Bennett said that you don't put yourself into what you write; you find yourself there....
27 Sept 2014: Saturday Play: Denmark Hill
By Alan Bennett. Adapted by Honor Borwick. RT:"Bennett's idiosyncratic take on 'Hamlet', originally written as an uncommissioned screenplay". In a leafy South London suburb, 15-year -old schoolgirl Harriet struggles with an essay on Shakespeare. Her dying father is upstairs. Narrator - Alan Bennett, Harriet - Bryony Hannah, Gwen - Penny Downie, George - Robert Glenister, Charles - Samuel Barnett, with Geoffrey Palmer, Malcolm Sinclair, Stephen Critchlow and Cathy Sara. Producer: Marilyn Imrie; directed by Tristram Powell. 60m.
THE LADY IN THE VAN....2010
21 Feb 09; adaptation of the Alan Bennet's autobiographical story of Miss Shepherd, an elderly lady who lived for 15 years in a van in his garden. Repeated during Christmas season 2010.
THE HISTORY BOYS....2006
Performed at the National; subsequently adapted for R4 by Richard Wortley. Click here for article on the new production - the R4 broadcast has been issued on CD by the BBC.
A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE....2004
BBC7, wb 25 Jan 04: - starring
Patricia Routledge and directed by Richard Wortley.
Routledge plays Margaret Schofield, a middle-aged
spinster who reminisces cheerfully about her world
of office work and canteen gossip.
THE LAST OF THE SUN....2004
Written for Thora Hird; her last radio appearance. Commissioned
by BBC7; broadcast mid-Jan 2004. Listeners enjoyed it - one called
it a wonderful combination of a great writer and a wonderful
performer combining to create unique radio. "It had me in
tears of both sadness and laughter" wrote another.
TALKING HEADS ....2003
--Note from Mary Kalemkerian; BBC7 newsletter, 26 Apr 03: "We
have some terrific new drama coming up for you in
the next few weeks. On the first Sunday in May there's
a drama-fest of Alan Bennett's marvellous monologues,
'Talking Heads', introduced by Alan Bennett himself.
The monologues will be repeated through the week,
ending with the late Dame Thora Hird's moving
performance of Cream Cracker under the settee".(quoted
by permission)
--BBC7, 4 May 03: Alan Bennett introduces his six monologues,
written for television in 1987, with new links recorded by him
for BBC7. The titles of the ones being broadcast this week are:
A Chip in the Sugar (performed by AB)
A lady of letters (Patricia Routledge)
Her Big Chance (Julie Walters)
Soldiering On (Stephanie Cole)
A cream cracker under the settee (Thora Hird)
The latter production, in which an old lady
obsessed with cleaning falls and breaks her
hip doing the dusting, revitalised the career of Thora Hird. It is
an excellent performance (one which was rebroadcast the day after
Thora Hird's death, as a tribute).
TWO IN TORQUAY....2003
A middle-aged man and a middle-aged woman talk politely in a
Torquay hotel. But neither of them is quite whom they appear to be.
With Judi Dench as Miss Plunkett and Alan Bennett as Mr. Mortimer.
Directed by Gordon House. This short play was originally written
in 1998 for Judi Dench and her late husband Michael Williams; they
performed it at the National Theatre. It has not been broadcast
before.
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS....1994, rpt. 2004
by Kenneth Grahame, dramatised by Alan Bennett,with songs and
music by Jeremy Samms. With Adrian Scarborough, Richard Briers, Nickolas Grace, Derek Waring and Alan Bennett as the Narrator.
Produced by David Blount. Originally broadcast as a single play on
Radio 4, 27th August 1994; repeated as 2 x 60min on BBC7 23rd and
24th December 2003.
Cast List:
BENNETT Alan...............Narrator
SCARBOROUGH Adrian.........Mole
BRIERS Richard.............Rat
GRACE Nickolas.............Toad
WARING Derek...............Badger
RIGBY Terence..............Albert the Horse
HARTLEY John...............Otter
MARCH David................Chief Weasle
TOMPKINSON Stephen.........Weasle Norman
PHILLIPS Leslie............Magistrate
SEED Graham................Rupert
DOWLING Alison.............Monica
MANSFIELD Elizabeth........Gaoler's Daughter / Rabbit Rose
GRAY Tina..................Washerwoman
HOLLAND Jeffrey............Engine Driver
CHARLES Maria..............Barge Woman
SCHILLER Danny.............The Gipsy
HOLT David.................Mr Parkinson / Hedgehog Harold / Weasle Wilfred
TAYLOR James...............Clerk of the Court / Hedgehog Herbert
MATTHEWS Geoffrey..........Prison Guard / Rabbit Robert
SINCLAIR David.............Gaoler / Rabbit Ronald
TREVES Simon...............Mr Fox / Ferret Fred / Policeman / Ticket Clerk
GRAHAM Jill................Squirrel Shirley
ACRE Peter.................Squirrel Raymond
PYNE Natasha...............Squirrel Sarah
WHITMAN Peter..............Hedgehog Henry
FRITCHETT Lucy.............Hedgehog Helen
PANTING Paul...............Ferret Gerald
KENNY Peter................Stoat Cyril
BEVAN Tom..................Stoat Stewart
BALDWIN Belinda............Portly
There was another version of this: a serial, dramatised by John Scotney, first episode 13 Feb 94, with Timothy Bateson, Dinsdale Landen, Willie Rushton, George Baker. Producer Peter Hutchings.
"Kafka's Dick"....1991
A rather whimsical play by Alan Bennett, bringing together Kafka and
his biographer Max Brod with a modern Kafka expert and his bored wife.
It contrives to present valid critical insights into Kafka's life
and work through the medium of an anarchic comedy. The radio version
knocks spots off the recent stage revival which suffered from ragged
direction and some poor performances. The final scene, where Kafka
finds to his horror that Heaven is a permanent wild party, is far
funnier on radio. The performers are all good : Richard Griffiths
and Alison Steadman as the modern couple, Nigel Anthony and Michael
Cochrane as Kafka and Brod. Best of all is Peter Woodthorpe as Kafka's
dreadful father, richly rolling his voice round some of Bennett's
choice lines : ' "Vile Bodies" by Evelyn Waugh - now she sounds as
if she knows how to please a man'. (Barry Pike / VRPCC newsletter)
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