Editing Alan Bennett (section)

==Career==
[[File:Beyond the Fringe original cast.JPG|thumb|Bennett (second left) in ''Beyond the Fringe'' on Broadway {{circa}} 1962]]

=== Early career ===
In August 1960, Bennett – along with [[Dudley Moore]], [[Jonathan Miller]] and [[Peter Cook]] – gained fame after an appearance at the [[Edinburgh Festival]] in the satirical revue ''[[Beyond the Fringe]]'', with the show continuing in London and New York. He also appeared in ''[[My Father Knew Lloyd George (TV programme)|My Father Knew Lloyd George]]''. His television comedy sketch series ''[[On the Margin]]'' (1966) was erased; the [[BBC]] re-used expensive videotape rather than keep it in the archives. However, in 2014 it was announced that audio copies of the entire series had been found.<ref>{{cite news |title = Alan Bennett's lost series On The Margin is recovered|date=17 March 2014 | website = [[BBC News Online]] | url = https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-26609104}}</ref>

Bennett's first stage play, ''[[Forty Years On (play)|Forty Years On]],'' directed by [[Patrick Garland]] and starring [[John Gielgud]], was produced in 1968. His second play, ''[[Getting On (play)|Getting On]]'', also directed by Garland and starring [[Kenneth More]], opened in 1971. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose, and broadcasting and many appearances as an actor.

Despite a long history with both the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] and the BBC, Bennett never writes on commission, saying "I don't work on commission, I just do it [[Spec script|on spec]]. If people don't want it then it's too bad."<ref>{{cite web  | last = Seale | first = Jack |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-09-27/heres-one-i-wrote-earlier-alan-bennett-on-denmark-hill |title=Here's one I wrote earlier: Alan Bennett on Denmark Hill |website=[[Radio Times]] |access-date = 3 February 2020 | date = 27 September 2014}}</ref>

Bennett's many works for television include his first play for the medium, ''A Day Out'' in 1972,  ''A Little Outing'' in 1977, ''Intensive Care'' in 1982, ''An Englishman Abroad'' in 1983, and ''[[A Question of Attribution]]'' in 1991.<ref name="screenonline">{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/504794/credits.html|title=Bennett, Alan (1934– ): Film and TV Credits {{!}} Screenonline|website=www.screenonline.org.uk|language=en|access-date=28 May 2023}}</ref> But perhaps his most famous screen work is the 1988 ''[[Talking Heads (British TV series)|Talking Heads]]'' series of monologues for television which were later performed at the [[Comedy Theatre]] in London in 1992. A second set of six ''Talking Heads'' followed a decade later.

=== 1980s ===
Bennett wrote the play ''[[Enjoy (play)|Enjoy]]'' in 1980. It barely scraped a run of seven weeks at the [[Vaudeville Theatre]], in spite of the stellar cast of [[Joan Plowright]], [[Colin Blakely]], [[Susan Littler]], Philip Sayer, [[Liz Smith (actress)|Liz Smith]] (who replaced [[Joan Hickson]] during rehearsals) and, in his first West End role, [[Marc Sinden]]. It was directed by [[Ronald Eyre]].<ref>Shenton, Mark.[https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2008/aug/28/whichflopsareripeforreviv "Which flops are ripe for revival?"], Theatre Blog, ''The Guardian'', 28 August 2008</ref> A new production of ''Enjoy'' attracted very favourable notices during its 2008 UK tour<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2009/feb/06/alan-bennett-enjoy-theatre |title=Let's enjoy Alan Bennett's revival play for what it is – Daniel Tapper on Alan Bennett's Enjoy|first=Daniel |last=Tapper|newspaper=The Guardian|date=6 February 2009}}</ref> and moved to the West End of London in January 2009.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/charlesspencer/4445302/Enjoy-by-Alan-Bennett-at-the-Geilgud-Theatre-review.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207142329/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/charlesspencer/4445302/Enjoy-by-Alan-Bennett-at-the-Geilgud-Theatre-review.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2009-02-07 |title=Enjoy by Alan Bennett at the Gielgud Theatre, review|first=Charles|last= Spencer|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date= 3 February 2009}}</ref> The West End show took more than £1&nbsp;million in advance ticket sales<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7859706.stm Curtain re-opens on Bennett Play] BBC News, 29 January 2009</ref> and even extended the run to cope with demand.<ref>[https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatre-news/news/bennetts-enjoy-extends-two-weeks-to-16-may-2009 Bennett's Enjoy extends two weeks to 16 May 2009] London Theatre, 18 February 2009</ref> The production starred [[Alison Steadman]], [[David Troughton]], Richard Glaves, Carol Macready and [[Josie Walker]].

=== 1990s ===
Bennett wrote ''[[The Lady in the Van]]'' based on his experiences with an eccentric woman called [[Miss Shepherd]], who lived on Bennett's driveway in a series of dilapidated vans for more than fifteen years. It was first published in 1989 as an essay in the ''[[London Review of Books]]''. In 1990 he published it in book form.  In 1999 he adapted it into a stage play, which starred [[Maggie Smith]] and was directed by [[Nicholas Hytner]]. The stage play includes two characters named Alan Bennett. On 21 February 2009 it was broadcast as a radio play on BBC Radio 4, with Maggie Smith reprising her role and Alan Bennett playing himself. He adapted the story again for a 2015 film, with Maggie Smith reprising her role again, and Nicholas Hytner directing again. In the film [[Alex Jennings]] plays the two versions of Bennett, although Alan Bennett appears in a cameo at the very end of the film.

Bennett adapted his 1991 play ''[[The Madness of George III]]'' for the cinema. Entitled ''[[The Madness of King George]]'' (1994), the film received four [[Academy Award]] nominations: for Bennett's writing and the performances of [[Nigel Hawthorne]] and [[Helen Mirren]]. It won the award for best art direction.

In 1995 Bennett wrote and hosted the three-part BBC documentary series ''[[The Abbey (1995 TV series)|The Abbey]]'', directed by [[Jonathan Stedall]]. The programme provides a personal tribute to, and tour of, [[Westminster Abbey]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001z7gr|title=BBC Two – The Abbey with Alan Bennett|publisher=BBC}}</ref>

=== 21st century ===
[[File:The History Boys at The Doon School.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|A 2007 production of Bennett's ''The History Boys'' at [[The Doon School]], India.]]
Bennett's critically acclaimed ''[[The History Boys]]'' won three [[Laurence Olivier Award]]s in 2005, for Best New Play, Best Actor ([[Richard Griffiths]]), and Best Direction ([[Nicholas Hytner]]), having previously won [[Critics' Circle Theatre Awards]] and [[Evening Standard Awards]] for Best Actor and Best Play. Bennett also received the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre.<ref>{{cite news|last=Jury|first= Louise|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/historic-night-for-alan-bennett-as-his-new-play-dominates-the-olivier-awards-746003.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100223202113/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/historic-night-for-alan-bennett-as-his-new-play-dominates-the-olivier-awards-746003.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2010-02-23|title=Historic night for Alan Bennett as his new play dominates the Olivier awards|newspaper=The Independent|date=21 February 2005}}</ref> ''The History Boys'' won six [[Tony Awards]] on Broadway, including best play, best performance by a leading actor in a play (Richard Griffiths), best performance by a featured actress in a play ([[Frances de la Tour]]) and best direction of a play (Nicholas Hytner). A film version of ''[[The History Boys (film)|The History Boys]]'' was released in the UK in October 2006. In his 2005 prose collection ''Untold Stories'', Bennett wrote of the mental illness that his mother and other family members suffered.

At the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] in late 2009 [[Nicholas Hytner]] directed Bennett's play ''[[The Habit of Art]]'', about the relationship between the poet [[W. H. Auden]] and the composer [[Benjamin Britten]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/celebrity/article/nicholas-hytner-on-his-time-at-the-national-theatre-fqrdjvvpwrf|url-status=live|url-access=subscription|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616200344/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article5677238.ece/theatre/article5677238.ece|archive-date=16 June 2011|title=Nicholas Hytner on his time at the National Theatre|last=Nightingale|first=Benedict|newspaper=[[The Times]]|date=9 February 2009}} Archived version is available without subscription.</ref>

Bennett's play ''[[People (play)|People]]'' opened at the National Theatre in October 2012.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/jan/23/alan-bennett-new-play-people |title=Alan Bennett's new play to open at National Theatre|first=Matt|last=Trueman|newspaper=The Guardian|date= 23 January 2012}}</ref> In December that year, ''[[Cocktail Sticks]]'', an autobiographical play by Bennett, premièred at the National Theatre as part of a double bill with the monologue ''Hymn''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/dec/17/hymn-cocktail-sticks-review|title=Hymn/Cocktail Sticks – review|last=Billington|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Billington (critic)|date=17 December 2012|access-date=3 January 2015|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> The production was directed by Bennett's long-term collaborator Nicholas Hytner. It was well-received, and transferred to the [[Duchess Theatre]] in the [[West End of London]], being subsequently adapted for radio broadcast by [[BBC Radio 4]].<ref>{{cite web|work=[[BBC Radio 4]]|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04wnpr6|title=Cocktail Sticks|date=3 January 2015}} Audio not available.</ref>

In July 2018, ''[[Allelujah!]]'', a comic drama by Bennett about a [[National Health Service]] hospital threatened with closure, opened at London's [[Bridge Theatre]] to critical acclaim.<ref>[https://bridgetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/allelujah/ "Allelujah!"], "Bridge Theatre". Retrieved 25 August 2018</ref>