Alan Bennett: 80 years on – in pictures

Alan Bennett was born on 9 May 1934 in Armley, West Yorkshire Photograph: Eamonn McCabe

Bennett studied at Exeter College, Oxford in the 1950s Photograph: PR

Bennett displayed his comic chops at the Edinburgh festival with Beyond the Fringe, appearing alongside Dudley Moore, Peter Cook and Jonathan Miller Photograph: Terry Disney/Hulton Archive

Yorkshire is the setting for several of his works including the 1986 play Kafka's Dick, seen here in a production at the Theatre Royal in York with Matthew Kelly and Matthew Rixon Photograph: Simon Warner

Here, Bennett portrays the role of Mrs Swabb in his 1973 comedy Habeas Corpus, described my Michael Billington as 'gorgeously vulger but densely plotted' Photograph: Evening Standard/Getty Images

Paul Bentall as Mr Shanks and Annette Badland as Mrs Wicksteed in a revival of Habeas Corpus at the Theatre Royal Bath in 2006 Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Alans Bennett and Bates in Monte Carlo, where they presented the TV drama An Englishman Aboard in 1984. Bates portrayed the spy Guy Burgess Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Bennett's extensive TV work includes All Day on the Sands (1979), starring Alun Armstrong and Marjorie Yates and set in Morecambe. It was one of six Bennett plays screened by London Weekend Television in the late 1970s Photograph: ITV/Rex Features

Bennett adapted The Wind in the Willows for the National Theatre in 1989. He also voiced Mole in a 1995 TV adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, with Toad voiced by Rik Mayall, Rat voiced by Michael Palin and Badger voiced by Michael Gambon Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

Bennett's best-known play is probably The History Boys, about a group of grammar-school lads preparing for their Oxbridge exams. The play was first staged at the National Theatre, directed by Nicholas Hytner, before touring America and Australia Photograph: Martin Godwin

Hytner directed a film adaptation of The History Boys, starring the original cast (including Richard Griffiths as Hector, Frances De La Tour as Mrs Lintott and Stephen Campbell Moore as Irwin) Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Earlier this year, Bennett's 1980 flop Enjoy was revived in the West End with Alison Steadman. 'Everyone falls in love with Alan because of his humility,' says Steadman Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Alan Bennett at the Edinburgh festival in 2007, where he read from his novella The Uncommon Reader Photograph: Murdo Macleod

Alex Jennings and Richard Griffiths in The Habit of Art at the Lyttelton theatre in 2009. Photograph: Geraint Lewis/Rex Features Photograph: Geraint Lewis/Rex Features

Frances de la Tour and Linda Bassett starred in People by Alan Bennett at the Lyttelton in 2012. Photograph: Tristram Kenton Photograph: Tristram Kenton

So what next? A new play for starters - at the National, later this year, starring Michael Gambon and Alex Jennings as WH Auden and Benjamin Britten Photograph: Eamonn McCabe