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Alan Bennett

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Published by Faber/Profile Books in 2005
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Published by Faber/Profile Books in 2005

Alan Bennett (born May 9, 1934) is an English author and actor famous for his work, boyish appearance and his sonorous Yorkshire accent.

Contents

Life and work

Born in Leeds, Bennett was schooled at Leeds Modern School (a state grammar school), learned Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguists during his National Service, and gained a place at Cambridge University. 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. He went on to take a first-class degree in history from Exeter College, Oxford. He was to remain at Oxford for several years studying Medieval History before realising he was not cut out to be an academic.

He claims that as an adolescent he assumed he would grow up to be a Church of England clergyman, for no better reason than he looked like one.

Album of "Beyond the Fringe" Published by EMI in 1996
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Album of "Beyond the Fringe" Published by EMI in 1996

In August 1960, Bennett, along with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller, and Peter Cook, achieved instant fame by appearing at the Edinburgh Festival in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe. After the Festival, the show continued in London and New York. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. He has written many short stories.

Many of Bennett's characters are unfortunate and downtrodden, as in the Talking Heads series of monologues for television which were later performed at the Comedy Theatre in London in 1992. This was a sextet of poignantly comic pieces, each of which portrayed several stages in the character's decline from their initial state of denial or ignorance of their predicament, through their slow realization of the hopelessness of their situation, to a typically bleak Bennett conclusion. A second set of six followed a decade later. He has written candidly and movingly of the mental illness that afflicted his mother and other family members.

Many of his plays draw on his background in Leeds and while he is celebrated for his acute observations of northern speech, 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 a dilapidated caravan for many years.

In 1998, Bennett refused an honorary doctorate from Oxford University, in protest at its links with the press baron Rupert Murdoch.

In February 2005 his critically-acclaimed The History Boys [link] won three Olivier Awards, for Best New Play, Best Actor (Richard Griffiths), and Best Direction (Nicholas Hytner), having previously won Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Best Actor and Best Play. Bennett himself received an Olivier Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre [link]. A film version of The History Boys is in production.

In September 2005, Bennett revealed that, in 1997, he had undergone treatment for cancer, and described the illness as a "bore". His chances of survival were given as being "much less" than 50%. [link]. He began Untold Stories (published 2005) thinking it would be published posthumously. In the event his cancer went into remission. In the autobiographical sketches Bennett writes openly for the first time about his homosexuality.

Bennett has lived in London's Camden Town for thirty years, and shares his house with his partner of 14 years, Rupert Thomas.

Further reading

Television work

Films

Radio

The gravestone of Alan Bennett's Uncle Clarence.
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The gravestone of Alan Bennett's Uncle Clarence.

Stage

BBC Radio Collection release of the play "Forty Years On", recorded in 2000.
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BBC Radio Collection release of the play "Forty Years On", recorded in 2000.

Publications

Translations

German

References

External links

 

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