Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English playwright, screenwriter and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research medieval history at the university for several years. His collaboration as writer and performer with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival brought him instant fame. He gave up academia, and turned to writing full time, his first stage play Forty Years On being produced in 1968.
His output includes The Madness of George III and its film incarnation The Madness of King George, the series of monologues Talking Heads, the play The History Boys, and popular audio books, including his readings of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Winnie-the-Pooh.
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Known For | Writing |
---|---|
Most Rating | 10.266 |
Birthday | 1934-05-09 |
Place of Birth | Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK |
Also Known As |
1996
In Love and War
5.9/138
After teenage ambulance driver Ernest Hemingway takes shrapnel in the leg during World War I, he falls in love with Agnes von Kurowsky, a beautiful ol...
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In Love and War
2004
Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?
4.8/3
The Secret Policeman benefit shows for Amnesty International brought together comedy grand masters - from Python and Beyond the Fringe - and performer...
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Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?
1964
Beyond the Fringe
7/3
A TV version of the stage show originally performed at the Edinburgh Fringe (August 1960) and in London (Fortune Theatre, May 1961) and Broadway (Octo...
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Beyond the Fringe
1995
The Wind in the Willows
7.1/30
Kenneth Grahame's literary classic about an enchanting world along the Riverbank has delighted readers for nearly a century. Now, this enduring belove...
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The Wind in the Willows
1996
The Willows in Winter
7/10
Hailed as the "rightful heir" to "The Wind in the Willows", William Horwood's critically acclaimed sequel comes to magical life in this beautifully an...
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The Willows in Winter
1976
Pleasure at Her Majesty's
6.5/2
The first of the Amnesty International comedy benefit galas. The title is a play on the phrase at Her Majesty's pleasure (the show was performed at He...
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Pleasure at Her Majesty's
1982
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
6/4
Following the success of the 1979 show and the financial benefits accruing to Amnesty from the spin-off movie, TV special and record albums – Cleese,...
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The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
1982
Intensive Care
0/0
When Denis Midgley's father is rushed to hospital, Midgley drops everything to be by his side. They've never really got on, so Midgley wants to be sur...
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Intensive Care
1979
Afternoon Off
0/0
Lee, a Chinese man, works as a waiter in a hotel in England, despite speaking very little English. Told that a girl called Iris might be interested in...
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Afternoon Off
1988
Talking Heads
5/1
Six monologues tell the stories of six different repressed souls: a man dominated by his mother, a vicar's wife, an inveterate letter writer, a hopefu...
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Talking Heads
2013
Mouse and Mole at Christmas Time
6/3
Animation telling of the adventures of Mouse, Mole, Rat and Owl. Before giving a Twelfth Night party, Mouse makes a snowmole for Mole. In a dream, Sno...
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Mouse and Mole at Christmas Time
1994
The Madness of King George
6.748/232
Aging King George III of England is exhibiting signs of madness, a problem little understood in 1788. As the monarch alternates between bouts of confu...
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The Madness of King George
1966
Alice in Wonderland
7.3/23
Alice in Wonderland (1966) is a BBC television play based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was directed by Jonathan Miller, th...
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Alice in Wonderland
1985
Dreamchild
6.7/31
Eighty-year-old Alice Hargreaves is about to visit Columbia University to attend a reception in honor of author Lewis Carroll. As a child, Alice had a...
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Dreamchild
2003
The Young Visiters
5.1/6
The Young Visiters, written in twelve days by nine-year-old Daisy Ashford in 1890, is a surreal blend of naiveté, precocious perception and inadverten...
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The Young Visiters
2013
The Native Hue of Resolution
0/0
A documentary celebrating 20 years of the work of Kaleidoscope, an organisation devoted to the preservation of archive television.
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The Native Hue of Resolution
2016
Alan Bennett's Diaries
6/1
Documentary about British author and actor Alan Bennett. Recorded over the course of a year, the film features a number of intimate encounters with Be...
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Alan Bennett's Diaries
2003
The Importance of Being Morrissey
6.6/5
Featuring interviews by famous fans and followers, this rare documentary encapsulates the essence of the controversial, enigmatic, and deliciously mel...
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The Importance of Being Morrissey
2013
National Theatre Live: 50 Years on Stage
7/3
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the National Theatre of Great Britain presents National Theatre: 50 Years on Stage, bringing together the best Brit...
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National Theatre Live: 50 Years on Stage
1978
Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf
0/0
A repressed night-school teacher, secretly homosexual, struggles to cope with his demanding, eccentric mother.
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Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf
2012
My Friend Sam: Living for the Moment
0/0
Sam was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder called Familial Dysautonomia. When born, he had 50 per cent chance of making it to his fifth birt...
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My Friend Sam: Living for the Moment
1991
Selling Hitler
7/2
In 1981, Gerd Heidemann, a war correspondent and reporter with the German magazine Stern, makes what he believes is the literary and historical scoop...
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Selling Hitler
2009
Being Alan Bennett
0/0
Documentary providing a rare glimpse into the life of Alan Bennett, one of the UK's best-loved writers, with interviews, archive footage and new work.
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Being Alan Bennett
1970
Every Home Should Have One
4.6/17
Teddy works for a large advertising company. Given the seemingly impossible task of selling frozen porridge, he decides to produce commercials that ma...
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Every Home Should Have One
1978
Long Shot
0/0
Against the backdrop of the 1977 Edinburgh Film Festival, two low-budget filmmakers attempt to talk up some finance as they hunt for cash, cast and ‘...
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Long Shot
1978
A Visit from Miss Prothero
0/0
Arthur Dodsworth has recently retired. He lives alone except for his budgie and memories of his late wife Winnie. One afternoon his nap is interrupted...
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A Visit from Miss Prothero
1994
Portrait or Bust
0/0
Alan Bennett's personal overview of art, filmed in the atmospheric location of a Leeds art gallery.
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Portrait or Bust
1988
Dinner at Noon
0/0
Writer Alan Bennett visits a hotel in the north of England, observes the guests, and reminisces about his experiences of staying in boarding-houses as...
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Dinner at Noon
1998
Did I Say Hairdressing? I Meant Astrophysics
0/0
This animated clip comments on different educational opportunities for boys and girls, and points out the positive impact of making all opportunities...
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Did I Say Hairdressing? I Meant Astrophysics
2015
The Lady in the Van
6.418/714
The true story of the relationship between Alan Bennett and the singular Miss Shepherd, a woman of uncertain origins who ‘temporarily’ parked her van...
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The Lady in the Van
1982
The Merry Wives of Windsor
8/2
When Sir John Falstaff decides that he wants to have a little fun he writes two letters to a pair of Window wives: Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. Wh...
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The Merry Wives of Windsor
1991
Julie Walters and Friends
0/0
Julie Walters stars in new sketches by four accomplished writers who helped make her famous.
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Julie Walters and Friends
1965
The Drinking Party
0/0
An interpretation of Plato's Symposium as a picnic organised by a University don for his students. Each guest is asked to explain the nature of love b...
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The Drinking Party
2017
Stop All the Clocks: W.H. Auden in an Age of Anxiety
0/0
Thirty years after his BBC film The Auden Landscape, director Adam Low returns to the poet and his work. Following surges of popularity - from featuri...
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Stop All the Clocks: W.H. Auden in an Age of Anxiety
1995
Some Interesting Facts About Peter Cook
0/0
A documentary about the life of British satirist and founder of 'Private Eye' Peter Cook.
“marvelous, engrossing tribute” Allison Pearson, The Observ...
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Some Interesting Facts About Peter Cook
2022
Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War
0/0
One of Britain’s greatest landscape artists, Eric Ravilious, is killed in a plane crash while on commission as Official War Artist in Iceland in 1942....
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Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War
2022
Stewart Lee: Tornado
7.083/6
The Bafta-winning Stewart Lee performs his latest touring show, focusing on a bizarrely erroneous description of his work on Netflix and a mind-boggli...
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Stewart Lee: Tornado
2011
Books: The Last Chapter?
0/0
Will the rise of electronic books mark the final chapter in the love story between traditional books and their readers? Alan Yentob discusses the subj...
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Books: The Last Chapter?
1987
Little Dorrit
6.455/11
A drama based on the novel by Charles Dickens which tells the story of Arthur Clennam who is thrown into a debtor's prison. There he meets a young sea...
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