Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett is one of the UK’s most well-known and successful writers. He has acted, written, directed, presented, or edited in almost every conceivable dramatic medium, including stage, print media, radio, film, and television. This book is the first to focus on his often neglected work for television, from the mid-1960s right through to the present. It encompasses formats such as the single play (the rarely seen 1970s collaborations with Stephen Frears and Lindsay Anderson), the two Talking Heads series, perceived as a reinvention of the television monologue, and his autobiographical documentaries. While providing a context of television drama in which Bennett’s output is embedded, this study also provides compact overviews of his work in other media.