Leeds-born playwright and screenwriter Alan Bennett returned to his hometown for a Guardian Live event in partnership with West Yorkshire Playhouse. He captivated a capacity audience with readings from his diaries spanning 2005-2015 – a particularly successful decade for the dramatist, with the release of films The History Boys and The Lady in the Van, and four stage premieres at the National Theatre. Bennett reflected on his extraordinary career, as well as sharing his thoughts on 2016, in conversation with the Guardian’s chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins. Charlotte and Guardian members Penny Thicket, Guy Cooper, Katherine Hamilton, Nora Boswell and Gary Williams share their experience of the evening.
‘It was Bennett in his natural habitat’
Charlotte: He was greeted with such an outpouring of love, from a packed theatre. There were hundreds of people there, and the event was sold out. This is a man who uses a typewriter rather than a computer and used to keep his manuscripts in the fridge for safekeeping!
Penny: One young lady had brought him a packet of custard creams to eat on the train home. He seemed so at ease and approachable that this moment didn’t seem odd in context.
Guy: Alan spoke about his meetings with TS Eliot, and he is arguably of the same magnitude, and perhaps the finest living chronicler of the mundane and the everyday.
Nora: The moment he walked on stage felt like that moment when you open your Christmas present and it’s exactly what you wanted. Every second was marvellous - so real and natural.
Gary: He told a story about how someone had once asked him if he was an Alan Bennett lookalike. He replied that he must be. The man smiled and walked away, but not before gently patting him on the arm and saying “good luck”. He’s a huge intellect, but he hides it under this soft, approachable northern facade.
‘Under the quiet, considered demeanour, he is a very concerned person’
Penny: … but he’s not the sort of person to bang a drum. He hasn’t done a lot with his “celebrity” status, probably because he doesn’t care too much about it. At the event he dealt with people so kindly, and by the end looked as though he could have slipped into a little snooze in the chair. He answered the questions with clear enjoyment of getting the words exactly right.
Katherine: He said he felt a sense of unease at the current political climate, and was almost sure he would die under a Tory government. He steered away from politics a bit, but of course a lot of his stories and anecdotes are laced with a political undercurrent, even at times a darkness.
Nora: He was at times as serious and thought-provoking as he was hilarious. But I think that’s a great reflection on life, isn’t it? Life, even at its most dire, almost always has an element of humour, even if you can’t see it at the time.
Gary: Alan referenced “the back place” at one point - the place where his father, who was a butcher, used to stow things he didn’t want people to see. Mentally, I’m sure Alan has a back place, a private life, but thankfully he’s happy not to hide all of himself from his readers.
He said people should read pretty much everything they can – apart from Mein Kampf
Katherine: He welcomed the opportunity to have his work picked apart by students, so long as they enjoy doing so and his writing doesn’t become a chore.
Penny: When asked whether past works of literature such as To Kill a Mockingbird or Huckleberry Finn ought to be re-edited, he said “I can’t say. I’ve never read either of those.” I’m not sure I believe him …
The Heathcliff line brought the house down …
Guy: Alan’s partner, Rupert, described him as being similar to the Wuthering Heights protagonist, but not in the way Alan had hoped. Rupert explained their likeness was due to the fact they are both “difficult, northern, and a cunt”.
Penny: These funny moments were contrasted with stories like the description of his grandmother’s mantelpiece, in which he walked us through the different items and where he supposed they would all end up in time. Tears of laughter and tears of sadness in equal measure.
Katherine: He is so deft at drawing out comedy and pathos from the smallest of anecdotes, and switching between the two. He can have you laughing aloud one minute and then swiftly knock you back into your seat with an observation which is somehow unsettlingly true.
Bennett is often accused of being twee, but he’s anything but …
Guy: He said he feels an affinity with Philip Larkin and how he saw the world. There is a real edge to his work, a fantastic bleakness. He draws you in with the voices of his characters, and then leaves you slightly breathless. His play People, for example, seems to be about the middle class’s fascination with National Trust properties, but I wonder if it’s also a comment on his own public persona. A nostalgic symbol of the past that has become something of a tourist trap.
Nora: It was apparent that he is happy to give actors and directors a good deal of autonomy with his work. He isn’t precious, and is always interested in how his words can be interpreted.
Charlotte: In the hands of someone as brilliant as Maggie Smith, the dichotomy and richness of his writing is really brought to life, and has a huge effect on the audience. Underneath a lot of his writing, he is very politically angry.
He threw his hands in the air at the mention of Trump
Gary: I think he was too overwhelmed to discuss that topic in too much depth. He chooses to bury himself in his work instead, but he was clearly disappointed with the Brexit result and how it would unfold. He said he’s a Labour man because they try to govern for the people and seem at least to be well-intentioned.
Guy: He spoke incredibly eloquently about the NHS and the arts, and his broad distrust of politicians. His continued engagement with politics is something that helps to keep his writing very fresh and relevant.
Charlotte: He spoke a little about the queen. He’s a monarchist (despite also being a socialist) and finds the queen quite easy to write about because “everyone thinks they know her”.
He was certainly sobered by the idea that a couple out there are gambling on him dying soon!
Gary: He explained that he got to know a man who often sat opposite him on the train to and from London, and one day the man explained he had a group of friends running a sweepstake on which celebrity would die that year, and one couple had chosen Alan! Bennett mused that if the stakes were high enough, it could lead to murder. He returned to his work with renewed vigour after that …
Charlotte: He was certainly surprised to have had a hit in his 70s with The History Boys. He had a serious health scare in the 90s but here he is in 2016 as brilliant and as loved as ever.
Penny Thicket, 64, lives in Buckinghamshire and works as a special needs consultant in the primary sector. Guy Cooper is 44, lives in Harrogate and works as an international sales director for a medical company. Katherine Hamilton is 25, lives in Leeds and works at a strategic marketing agency as head of content. Nora Boswell is 68, lives in Thornton, Bradford, and is now retired but used to teach in further education. Gary Williams, 46, lives in London and is a singer.
This event took place on 11th December at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds.
