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Alan Bennett: Plays: 12 Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramas
A unique collection of twelve full-cast BBC Radio productions of plays by Alan Bennett. The titles are Forty Years On ; A Visit from Miss Prothero ; Say Something Happened ; Kafka’s Dick ; Two in Torquay ; The Madness of George III ; The History Boys ; An Englishman Abroad; A Question of Attribution; The Lady in the Van ; Cocktail Sticks and The Last of the Sun. The cast includes John Gielgud, Patricia Routledge, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, Judi Dench, Thora Hird, Alex Jennings and many more. Duration: 15 hours approx
1 pages, Audio CD
First published July 7, 2016
6 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Alan Bennett
272 books1,108 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are also widely enjoyed.
Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are also widely enjoyed.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 2, 2024
Observations of human nature .. Alan Bennett's plays and his Talking Heads always trigger something in me ..
February 5, 2017
This is a selection of Alan Bennet plays which I love. I fell in love with his writing when I first studied Talking Heads monologues at the age of 15. This selection includes great plays like Lady in the Van, Two in Torquay and The History Boys with a number of big names. Worth a listen!
September 12, 2017
I listened to this in April while on a work trip to London, and completely forgot to mark it as read.
It was a delight. I can't choose a favourite but, if pressed, Kafka's Dick and A Visit From Miss Prothero both had me chuckle snorting on the train.
It was a delight. I can't choose a favourite but, if pressed, Kafka's Dick and A Visit From Miss Prothero both had me chuckle snorting on the train.
June 12, 2025
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is included on The Modern Library 100 Best Novels list, also on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read one, and it is ranked 92nd on The Greatest Books of All Time site, and here is my plug – hundreds of works from those compilations are reviewed on my blog, where the best gig you can see might be https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
I have another look at this wonderful book at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and you may wish to transmigrate to this link, for this note is more of a warning:
- There are scammers on Goodreads now!
And the way the connection was made was along these lines – ‘ou sont les neiges d’antan’ which is a quote from French poet Francois Villon, something like ‘where are the snows of yesteryear’, or maybe this:
- Oh, that Age of Innocence is gone!
Not that they were so innocent in the masterpiece of Edith Wharton, Newland Archer is married to May Welland, but infatuated -maybe in love, ever since reading Thomas Mann https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... I have qualms about using the word love, which means much more than we encounter ordinarily – with Ellen Olenska
Nevertheless, I was pining (which in fact I took from Monty Python, with that ‘pining for the fjords’ line) for this lost Age of Innocence, when I looked at yet another attempt to make me lose some cash on Goodreads
This is the third time that I have a woman, with a quite alluring picture (maybe stolen) ask for my friendship, then send an admiring message: ‘your Goodreads reviews are absolutely amazing, each one feels like a little love letter to literature, and I adore the way you bring books to life with your words. 📚✨It would mean so much to connect as friends and stay in touch. I truly believe that people who share a love for books share a special kind of magic, and I'd love to share that journey with you. Let’s talk about stories, dreams, and all the beautiful things that make life wonderful!’ what a lovely, touching, yet inaccurate statement
Even I have seen this strategy at play before, I said let us try, in spite of the too pompous ‘absolutely amazing’, I mean come on, if they had been that, they would not be on this site, except as lines in books and readers would comment on my productions, but we will never be there, so what was the catch, if we continue?
She has read none of those fantastic notes, and would not even pay attention to the messages exchanged, in spite of her desire to ‘connect as friends and stay in touch’ because I have asked her presto about
- Trump
He is my litmus test, if you like him, then there is nothing we have in common, indeed, we are literally living in different worlds, and I know that nonsense about knowing what the other side feels, thinks, etc., I have to end this soon, so there is no space and time for this, only I will surely come back to the idea that these people are responsible for the calamity we see, and the catastrophes to come, so don’t tell me I need to embrace them
This woman who is so thrilled by our future bonding didn’t even notice I am asking about Orange Woland, and I had to say ‘you did not answer my question’, and she is ‘what question’ and then she gives me some shit about ‘he has a powerful personality, bla, bla…’ the thing here is she wants to move to some other social network, then we get ‘close’ and I send money, right?
- Well, no, wrong! I stopped it, though I lose such a sincere admirer
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
I have another look at this wonderful book at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and you may wish to transmigrate to this link, for this note is more of a warning:
- There are scammers on Goodreads now!
And the way the connection was made was along these lines – ‘ou sont les neiges d’antan’ which is a quote from French poet Francois Villon, something like ‘where are the snows of yesteryear’, or maybe this:
- Oh, that Age of Innocence is gone!
Not that they were so innocent in the masterpiece of Edith Wharton, Newland Archer is married to May Welland, but infatuated -maybe in love, ever since reading Thomas Mann https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... I have qualms about using the word love, which means much more than we encounter ordinarily – with Ellen Olenska
Nevertheless, I was pining (which in fact I took from Monty Python, with that ‘pining for the fjords’ line) for this lost Age of Innocence, when I looked at yet another attempt to make me lose some cash on Goodreads
This is the third time that I have a woman, with a quite alluring picture (maybe stolen) ask for my friendship, then send an admiring message: ‘your Goodreads reviews are absolutely amazing, each one feels like a little love letter to literature, and I adore the way you bring books to life with your words. 📚✨It would mean so much to connect as friends and stay in touch. I truly believe that people who share a love for books share a special kind of magic, and I'd love to share that journey with you. Let’s talk about stories, dreams, and all the beautiful things that make life wonderful!’ what a lovely, touching, yet inaccurate statement
Even I have seen this strategy at play before, I said let us try, in spite of the too pompous ‘absolutely amazing’, I mean come on, if they had been that, they would not be on this site, except as lines in books and readers would comment on my productions, but we will never be there, so what was the catch, if we continue?
She has read none of those fantastic notes, and would not even pay attention to the messages exchanged, in spite of her desire to ‘connect as friends and stay in touch’ because I have asked her presto about
- Trump
He is my litmus test, if you like him, then there is nothing we have in common, indeed, we are literally living in different worlds, and I know that nonsense about knowing what the other side feels, thinks, etc., I have to end this soon, so there is no space and time for this, only I will surely come back to the idea that these people are responsible for the calamity we see, and the catastrophes to come, so don’t tell me I need to embrace them
This woman who is so thrilled by our future bonding didn’t even notice I am asking about Orange Woland, and I had to say ‘you did not answer my question’, and she is ‘what question’ and then she gives me some shit about ‘he has a powerful personality, bla, bla…’ the thing here is she wants to move to some other social network, then we get ‘close’ and I send money, right?
- Well, no, wrong! I stopped it, though I lose such a sincere admirer
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
March 28, 2022
Worth it for Cocktail Sticks alone. Stunning.
So many great actors. Such great writing in this audiobook.
So many great actors. Such great writing in this audiobook.
July 5, 2022
Alan Bennett is the best of the best.
Are all of the plays fantastic?
Some are a little dated.
But still the whole experience so rewarding.
Are all of the plays fantastic?
Some are a little dated.
But still the whole experience so rewarding.
September 4, 2024
Loved everything. Alan Bennett is a great writer. Beginning with Forty Years On and ending with Cocktail Sticks the entire collection was amazing.
January 24, 2020
I thoroughly enjoy Alan Bennett’s style and whilst I had heard of a few of his plays there were many here that I was not familiar with. There were certainly some that I enjoyed more than others: but overall certainly worth investigating.
Read
January 28, 2024Always enjoyed Alan Bennett's dramas.
These perforormances are top notch.
All very very British.
The only one that I didn't follow well or care for was The History Boys.
Far too many literary references for my high school education.
These perforormances are top notch.
All very very British.
The only one that I didn't follow well or care for was The History Boys.
Far too many literary references for my high school education.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews