Talking Heads (plays)

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For the rock band, see Talking Heads.

Talking Heads is a series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television by the acclaimed British playwright Alan Bennett. The pieces have since been broadcast on BBC Radio, performed in live theatre, and included on the A-level English Literature syllabus. They have also played on PBS in the United States as part of its Masterpiece Theatre programme. In 2002, seven of the pieces were performed at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles for a highly-praised engagement. In 2003, several of the monologues premiered in New York at the Minetta Theatre. The entire series is now available on DVD and also in published form.

Summary

There are two seasons of Talking Heads, each composed of six episodes, along with a thirteenth play, A Woman of No Importance, which, while not released alongside Talking Heads, generally fits into the canon. A Woman of No Importance was written considerably earlier than the other twelve instalments.

Although the plays deal with a variety of subjects, there are certain recurring themes, such as loneliness, hubris, and romantic irony.

Most of the plays give some hint as to where they are set - mostly in Leeds, although not, as Bennett stresses, the real Leeds, rather one that exists in his head. For example, Matthias Robinsons, in which Miss Fozzard works, closed in the 1960s.

Episodes

Actors are named for the BBC television versions.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Patricia Routledge plays Miss Schofield in A Woman of No Importance

Peggy Schofield, clerical worker and self-described lynchpin of her office, finds that when her strict regime is disrupted, her world crumbles around her. Her health deteriorates and she is rapidly spirited away to hospital, where she reconstructs her office routine, appropriating doctors, other hospital staff and patients as replacements for her co-workers. It is soon revealed, through hints that she has lost her job and her co-workers haven't bothered to visit, that she is not as popular and significant as she assumed.

Talking Heads 1 — (1987)

Alan Bennett plays Graham Whittaker in A Chip in the Sugar

Graham is a middle-aged man with a history of mild mental health problems, living with his mother in Leeds. He is an absolutely stereotypical Guardian reader — he wears flares, avoids deodorant, is environmentally conscious, likes date and walnut bread, and is very anti-Thatcher. It is also revealed that he is a closet homosexual. His life is dramatically disrupted when his mother, who he is effectively "married" to, meets her old flame Frank Turnbull after 52 years. Turnbull is bigoted, right-wing, and racist — the opposite of Graham — but he is also well-dressed and well-off, and his reactionary instincts chime with the forgetful and easily-manipulated Mrs Whittaker (whose previous husband, Graham's father, presumably died in hospital — Graham refers to doctors "wheeling him into the theatre"). Graham becomes increasingly jealous as Mr Turnbull takes an ever-growing hold on Mrs Whittaker's life, to the extent he proposes marriage — simultaneously suggesting Graham moves out of the house to a hostel. But Mr Turnbull is hiding a secret, and when Graham finds out he triumphantly confronts his mother with the information, restoring the status quo and his comfortable life but destroying her hopes of happiness in the process.

Maggie Smith plays Susan in Bed amongst the Lentils

Susan, an alcoholic, nervous vicar's wife, distracts herself from her ambitious, insensitive husband and his doting parishioners by conducting an affair with a nearby grocer, Ramesh Ramesh, discovering something about herself and God in the process.

Patricia Routledge plays Irene in A Lady of Letters

Irene Ruddock is not afraid to speak, or rather write, her mind: she writes letters to her MP, the police, the chemist - everyone she can, to remedy the social ills she sees around her. After one too many accusations of misconduct from Irene's pen, she is sent to prison - where, for the first time in her life, she truly feels free.

Julie Walters plays Lesley in Her Big Chance

Lesley is an aspiring actress, who, after a series of unpromising extra roles on television programmes such as Crossroads, finds what she believes to be her big break as the adventurous Travis in a new film for the West German market. It is not clear to what extent Lesley understands that she is appearing in a pornographic film.

Stephanie Cole plays Muriel in Soldiering On

Muriel is a strong woman, and always has been — a pillar of the community, a regular charity worker, and a volunteer for Meals on Wheels; and looking after her mentally ill daughter, Margaret, has fortified her resolve — so, after the death of her husband, Muriel is well-prepared to cope with the crisis. However, given her son's inaptitude (or dishonesty) with money, and the vile secret behind Margaret's illness, Muriel finds that she needs to adapt in order to 'soldier on.'

Thora Hird plays Doris in Cream Cracker under the Settee

Doris is a tidy woman — and when she suffers a fall after trying to clear up after her considerably less thorough home help, Zulema, she wonders whether her tidying was responsible for her husband's early death and whether the only place left for her in society is a care home which she distrusts. Resisting this with all her being, she decides she'd rather die by her own means than within their care.

Talking Heads 2 — (1998)

Eileen Atkins plays Celia in The Hand of God

Celia is a covetous antiques dealer who brazenly aids elderly neighbours for the sole purpose of being in a good position to buy their treasures on the cheap when they die. She's particularly put out when one elderly woman whom she's cared for, living in a house chock full of antiques, dies and leaves everything to a distant Canadian relative. Celia is somewhat soothed when the Canadian gives her a small box of the woman's things, which includes a curious drawing of a thumb. Celia is particularly pleased that she makes ninety pounds selling the thumb picture, but then later learns to her horror that it is a lost Michelangelo masterpiece worth millions, which the buyer says on national television he bought in a "junk shop."

Patricia Routledge plays Miss Fozzard in Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet

Miss Fozzard is a lonely, middle-aged department store clerk in the Soft Furnishings Department whose free time is mostly spent caring for her mentally disabled brother. Her one joy in life is her regular visits to her podiatrist, but when he retires, she finds her life consumed with a burgeoning relationship with his replacement, a decidedly kinky fellow with an all-consuming foot fetish. While Miss Fozzard would be the last to admit it, she ventures into benign prostitution as she allows her new podiatrist to pay her to model a variety of footwear.

David Haig plays Wilfred Paterson in Playing Sandwiches

Wilfred is a reformed paedophile living under a false identity and working as a much-praised maintenance man in a public park. However, as a superior begins to pressure him for bureaucratic historical information to include in his personnel file, the pressure causes Wilfred to resume his old ways with horrifying results. Incarcerated, he contemplates on his condition, remarking 'It's the one part of my life that feels right... and that's the bit that's wrong.'

Julie Walters plays Marjory in The Outside Dog

Obsessively clean Marjory slowly comes to realise that her husband, who works in a slaughterhouse, is using his employment to cover the fact that he's a particularly heinous criminal. She's not particularly disturbed when he's arrested and prosecuted, as it gets him out of the house, where he's always soiling something she's just cleaned. When he's found not guilty because of a technicality, she's more concerned that he's coming home to mess things up again than with the fact that she'll be sharing a house with a serial murderer.

Penelope Wilton plays Rosemary in Nights in the Gardens of Spain

Rosemary is a lonely woman who takes it upon herself to tend to a female neighbour's garden after the latter is arrested for murdering her abusive husband. Rosemary inserts herself more and more in the woman's life and visits her repeatedly in prison when the incarcerated woman becomes ill, to the point where the relationship becomes almost obsessive. As the case of her newfound friend is investigated, a darker and more perverted side of Rosemary's own husband is revealed.

Thora Hird plays Violet in Waiting for the Telegram

Violet is a confused, elderly woman in a nursing home who has been told by the excited staff she will soon be receiving a congratulatory telegram from the Queen in honour of her birthday. This, however, perplexes Violet as she wanders far back in her memory to an age where telegrams brought news of death on a battlefield. Violet ruminates about a long-lost love and a more recent friend, a male nurse at the home named Francis, who has recently died of AIDS.

Spoilers end here.

External links

[BBC7: Talking Heads]

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