Alan Bennett: Plays
Summary
A unique collection of 12 full-cast BBC Radio productions of plays by Alan Bennett.
The titles are:
40 Years On
A Visit from Miss Prothero
Say Something Happened
Kafka's Dick
Two in Torquay
The Madness of George III
The History Boys
An Englishman Abroad
A Question of Attribution
The Lady in the Van
Cocktail Sticks and the Last of the Sun
The cast includes John Gielgud, Patricia Routledge, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, Judi Dench, Thora Hird, Alex Jennings and many more.
©2016 BBC Worldwide Ltd. (P)2016 BBC Worldwide Ltd.
The Lady in the Van
Summary
Maggie Smith stars in this BBC radio adaptation of Alan Bennett's highly acclaimed autobiographical stage play.
An eccentric old lady moves into a quiet street in Camden Town. There she remains, installed in her van in glorious self-sufficiency, until the council instructs her to move on. Then a kind homeowner invites her to move her van into his garden - where she stays for the next 15 years. This is the fascinating story of the genteel vagrant who found a unique place in Alan Bennett's life and writing.
But the drama is as much about the author himself as Miss Shepherd. Why did Alan Bennett let her commandeer his driveway? Was he acting out of kindness, weakness or hidden guilt over not spending enough time with his own mother? Did he always subconsciously plan to exploit Miss Shepherd for literary profit?
Thought provoking and moving, The Lady in the Van tackles profound questions about social responsibility, homelessness and mental illness with a lightness of touch characteristic of Bennett the master storyteller.
With a full cast including Adrian Scarborough, Marcia Warren and Alan Bennett, this bittersweet comic tale stars Maggie Smith as Miss Shepherd.
Now a major BBC feature film starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings.
©2015 BBC Worldwide Ltd (P)2015 BBC Worldwide Ltd
The Complete Talking Heads
Summary
The complete audio collection of Alan Bennett's celebrated monologues, published together for the first time and performed by some of Britain's best actors.
The Talking Heads monologues are widely regarded as one of Alan Bennett's finest dramatic achievements. First broadcast on BBC TV and BBC Radio 4 in the 1980s and 1990s, they won a host of awards and huge popular acclaim and remain among his most admired works today.
This collection includes all twelve Talking Heads, plus the precursor of that series, 'A Woman of No Importance'.
Beautifully crafted and full of compassion and wry observation, each tale is ripe with the quirky, insightful detail that has become Bennett's trademark. The monologues are: 'A Woman of No Importance' (Patricia Routledge); 'A Chip in the Sugar' (Alan Bennett); 'A Lady of Letters' (Patricia Routledge); 'Bed Among the Lentils' (Anna Massey); 'Soldiering On' (Stephanie Cole); 'Her Big Chance' (Julie Walters); 'A Cream Cracker Under the Settee' (ThoraHird); 'Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet' (Patricia Routledge); 'The Hand of God' (Eileen Atkins); 'Playing Sandwiches' (David Haig); 'The Outside Dog' (Julie Walters); 'Nights in the Gardens of Spain' (Penelope Wilton) and 'Waiting for the Telegram' (Thora Hird).
Intensely moving, deeply engrossing and highly entertaining, these spellbinding soliloquies are essential listening.
©2015 BBC Worldwide Ltd (P)2015 BBC Worldwide Ltd
Alan Bennett
Summary
Untold Stories, Alan Bennett's first major collection of prose since his best-selling
Writing Home, brings together the finest and funniest of his writing over the last 10 years. Two recordings feature selected material from
Untold Stories:
Part 1: Stories contains the title piece, and Part 2: The Diaries covers Alan Bennett's much-celebrated diaries for 1997-2004. Stories is a poignant family memoir recalling the marriage of Alan's parents, the lives and deaths of his aunts, and the uncovering of a long-held family secret. At times heartrending, and at others extremely funny, Untold Stories is a matchless and unforgettable journey into Alan Bennett's past.
©2005 Forelake Limited (P)2005 BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Alan Bennett: Stories
Summary
A unique collection of eight Alan Bennett stories, read by the author. Alan Bennett is one of Britain's best-loved authors and an acclaimed storyteller. This exclusive compilation includes eight of his best tales, collected together for the first time.
Here is his celebrated, iconic memoir 'The Lady in the Van'; as well as two fascinating autobiographical accounts of his family and childhood. 'Uncle Clarence' sees Bennett visiting the grave of a relative who died in Flanders in 1917; while in 'Hymn' he joins forces with composer George Fenton and the Medici String Quartet to explore his musical memories.
Bennett's incisive, acute observations shine through in his fiction too, with wry, moving and darkly humorous meditations on death ('Father! Father! Burning Bright' and 'The Laying On of Hands'), sex ('The Shielding of Mrs Forbes) and middle-age ennui ('The Clothes They Stood Up In'). His gift for affectionate satire reaches its pinnacle in 'The Uncommon Reader', a delightful tale in which the Queen discovers the pleasures of literature.
Poignant, compassionate, wise and witty, the stories included are 'The Lady in the Van', 'Uncle Clarence', 'The Clothes They Stood Up In', 'Father! Father! Burning Bright', 'Hymn', 'The Laying On of Hands', 'The Uncommon Reader' and 'The Shielding of Mrs Forbes'.
©2016 BBC Worldwide Ltd (P)2016 BBC Worldwide Ltd
Alan Bennett
Summary
Untold Stories, Alan Bennett's first major collection of prose since his best-selling
Writing Home, brings together the finest and funniest of his writing over the last 10 years. Two recordings feature selected material from
Untold Stories:
Part 1: Stories contains the title piece, and Part 2: The Diaries covers Alan Bennett's much-celebrated diaries for 1997-2004. They are an erudite collection of witty yet poignant recollections told in his own unique voice. Whether appreciating the simple pleasures of nature, or commenting on religion, politics or the arts, his observations are incisive, funny, and yet always meaningful.
©2005 Forelake Limited (P)2005 BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Alan Bennett
Summary
Alan Bennett's three classic BBC Radio full-cast dramas:
Kafka's Dick,
Forty Years On, and
An Englishman Abroad.
Kafka's DickAlison Steadman, Richard Griffiths, and Nigel Anthony star in this BBC Radio 4 version of Alan Bennett's acclaimed comedy drama, described by the Daily Telegraph's Gillian Reynolds as "Pure joy". Bennett's brilliantly clever comedy not only examines the relationship between life and art, but also asks, What was Kafka's embarrassing little problem?
Forty Years OnAlan Bennett stars in the production of his own acclaimed satirical comedy about a headmaster of Albion House who is retiring and takes part in the end-of-year entertainment for the last time. It also stars Robert Bathurst and Eleanor Bron.
An Englishman AbroadMichael Gambon and Penelope Wilton star as Guy Burgess and Coral Browne in this BBC Radio full-cast drama based on a real-life chance encounter in 1958 between the world famous spy and a Shakespearean actress.
Clever, funny, and poignant, Alan Bennett's masterful plays are rightly regarded as modern classics.
©2005 BBC Audiobooks, Ltd. (P)2000, 2001, 2004, 2005 BBC Audiobooks Ltd.