Alan Bennett in Conversation | BFI Q&A

The acclaimed British writer visits the BFI Southbank to discuss the influence of his northern roots.
Few writers have successfully mined northern culture and specific northern speech patterns as Alan Bennett. Growing up in Leeds, he listened in on the chatter of his relatives, absorbing the patter of domestic conversation, which would emerge across a glittering and much-loved range of plays, particularly those written for television. Here, Bennett explores the way northern culture is so integral to his creative process.
Part of the BFI's Northern Voices season:
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[@tonyg8067]

An astonishing man. Forget national treasure. He is the National conscience.

[@Ukedc259]

Full of fanboy admiration, I tried to interview him while I was at university. He said no. He sent me a postcard reply. “I advise you to talk to homeless people who’d be far more interesting than me, and more deserving of your time.” Perspicacious to a fault.

[@mortemoccasus2412]

This is how legends are....humble by their own vast accomplishments and genius...what a man...

[@hilaryepstein6013]

Alan Bennett still has the power to enthrall with his understated wisdom and humour. His generation of Oxbridge writer/performers of the 1950s/60s are the best we've ever had I think and these interviews are precious.

[@JoKeo-mn8vx]

Please don’t forget Victoria Wood who is also an amazing observer and writer of some of the best we have to offer and note that although she is dead her writings and humour will outlast all of us.

[@mikelukebaynham]

And still funny.

[@mrduckspeak]

We should treasure such a brilliant observer of British (probably more accurately, English) life. There won't be anyone quite like him once he's gone.

[@annishilcock4587]

There are so many men and women of brilliance that we will be so much poorer without when they are gone.

[@revol148]

@mrduckspeak how many of his plays have you watched?

[@jameswithey182]

Him and Victoria Wood are my complete heroes. I could listen to him talk for hours.

[@rogernichols1124]

As a fellow Northerner from a working class background and a Cambridge education, so much of what Alan Bennett writes and says resonates with me. His wisdom and talent for getting to the heart of the character of Northerners is wonderful. He makes me laugh, cry and reflect in equal measure. A truly great man.

[@aderynzajicova7230]

He is so full of love and humour. Love him.

[@MrSwifts31]

Alan's Mother (according to him) wanted to "Live life with the crusts cut off" Says everything about where he got a lot of his humour from!

[@elainemagson213]

He is amazing. I've adored him since I was eleven. And he's still got it. So wonderfully funny. Not surprised the interviewer was rather awkwardly diffident. Many thanks bFI.

[@shackledcitizen]

Only two days ago, he came into my mind. I wondered if he was still with us. I was so pleasesd to see this interview. He has lost nothing of his old self. Tnank you for this presentation.

[@njp]

A breed of writer that only comes along in a once in a lifetime form. If you are very lucky you may just catch a return, but may not choose to come back as a writer . Thank you Alan Bennett.

[@jakegodfrey4320]

I have always been a fan of Alan Bennett but what I really love him for is when I wrote to him when I was at school. My letter was full of quite over the top effusive praise about his work, he actually took the time to write a long postcard back, answering all my questions and even giving me advice on writing a monologue.

[@angelabrady9374]

What a Legend im from. LEEDS He reminds me of my father he grew up. In Headingly just loved listening to you Alan in the interview sooo intresting 🤗🌟🌟

[@harri2626]

As someone born in Bramley, Leeds, albeit ten years later than Alan, I recognise all he has to say about Northern attitudes, nuances and speech cadences. My mother could have slotted into one of Alan's pieces with ease. She typified the class distinctions of the period - being "common" and "uncouth" in the negative, and "select" and "refined" in the positive. There were even distinctions made about people "with money". They were either naturally wealthy and could handle it well, or "not used to having money and can't cope with it". She always seemed to be convinced that, somewhere in her not too distant past, she had aristocratic blood and it was only a matter of time before this was revealed. Sadly, those attitudes rubbed off on me, and I have spent the rest of my life trying to live them down.

[@PK-yf3hd]

Thanks for your evocative piece of nostalgic wisdom....I recall and rejoice in the type and the same world

[@gabriellehollington5163]

Sheer priceless brilliance. Utterly human & relatable. True genius.🤩

[@jestermoon]

Take A Moment Mr Bennett, your work is wonderful, thank you sir. I will always love your style, timeless genius. 3:02

[@paulinerodgerson2476]

I lived in Armley and served Alan with Pick and Mix on the sweet counter in Woolworths on Town Street.

[@kaz1015]

love it!

[@franrowe8696]

Oh my days, he is everything that embodies growing up in the north for me.

[@carolking6355]

What a really, lovely man. I wish I could tell him of one of my Victorian Dads sayings. If you asked him where something was and he didn’t know. He would say “have you looked on the piano” ? We didn’t have a piano.

[@glynischapman3044]

We used to say " It's in Annie's room, behind the clock "

[@joozimek9643]

When told of a neighbour s marital problems, my mother said “I’m not surprised,have you seen the colour of her whites “

[@citizen1163]

@@joozimek9643 😂

[@steeleye2112]

Always been a hero of mine, I was from the next generation who benefited from the walls and barriers he and his contemporaries demolished. I don't want these people to ever go. I also don't want them to ever retire which is hardly fair.

[@marymurray5059]

He’s just amazing.

[@stephenridley1153]

Lovely tribute to Victoria Wood 💕

[@Zionist-Occupied-Government]

He is great.. I have walked most of the fells in the Lake District and I own all of his guidebooks. The best thing about this great man is the animal sanctuary that he opened, he should be granted a Knighthood for his services.

[@geoffjoffy]

He's looking good for 89. Still no grey hair yet either. That's his natural hair color. Long may he reign!

[@SunofYork]

If you think there is a culture difference twixt London and Leeds, you could ponder my plight. On Friday 13th October 1967 I joined Leeds City Police at age 19 and worked in the old Kirkstall etc. By gum it were rough ! I live in Wisconsin now in a bugger off mansion, and 'her indoors' is the product of parents from Mississippi/Arkansas. The culture gap is GALACTIC ! I tell her to "stick wood in't oil" and she doesn't always jump to it ! My dad was a co-op grocery van driver /coal man in Guiseley and I love being able to do dialect and posh English and a bit of septic...(17 years in) I am visiting Leeds next month and I fit in instantly ! Haddock and chips at Murgatroyd's Yeadon ..... and curry sauce !

[@mongolmcphee7791]

Do the Southerners on that side of the pond find Northerners from this side of the pond easy to understand?

[@SunofYork]

@@mongolmcphee7791 Yes. I did 4 years in Washington State and never heard "Should of went" and the accent was clear to my Leeds(slight) accent...... Leeds is the home of call centers in da yookay coz they are clear (crisp anglo-saxon, Germanic ) accents..... and they have the best (not frozen), Icelandic haddock

[@mongolmcphee7791]

@@SunofYork I'm from the Far North West and I nearly died of thirst in New York cos no one could understand me saying "water"

[@SunofYork]

@@mongolmcphee7791 You are now exposed as being NORMAL ! In McDonalds, asking for coffee is a nightmare. They look blank at me. Apparently it is CAR-FEE and not Cough-ee.. This is all the fault of the Irish immigrants who were trying to transition from Gaelic...... In Wisconsin they are all Germans where ever letter so pronounced... So in WI and canada, "out" is pronounced "O- oo- tt" like a german would.. O U T oh-oo- tt.

[@johnthomson6507]

Such a nice man and great playwright

[@havingalook2]

If there ever was a national treasure - it is Alan Bennett.

[@nononame113]

National treasure, of course. Outstanding hair, also.

[@t.p.mckenna]

Ah, yes, but with a little help from a bottle, surely. It looks like spun gold ... at 90?!

[@t.p.mckenna]

@anoddsortofthing9604 pardon my cynicism. I missed that.

[@julianlyons711]

A great guy and true classic character .. one of the last remaining

[@jencoldwell4036]

‘Enjoy’ was ahead of its time. It’s a brilliant script, of course

[@jamesharding17]

He looks and sounds amazing. His wit, as acerbic and erudite as ever

[@FF-so3su]

Wonderful writer, wonderful speaker and narrator ❤

[@lee70687]

Simply wonderful. The reading he gives at the end is funny, emotional and beautiful.

[@cavendish009]

It sounds as if they had a much larger vocabulary than most people nowadays. Good for them enjoying language!!!! We use such a small amount of words these days.

[@marynorth7988]

Just watched The Lady in the Van again this evening.... just another brilliant example of his work. This man is indeed a gem.... and he is a Yorkhire man ....!!

[@dionnegonsalves8188]

In Yorkshire, the locals/natives say Yorkshire Lad or Lass... regardless of the persons' age. Gods' own country, White Rose country, true Yorkists, & largest county in 🇬🇧 Warm & straightforward people, whom tell it like it is. 😊😂 👍🏽

[@WhippetOut]

My hero.

[@tonyhibbs1600]

A brilliant playwriter

[@peterpeterking1]

Blummin brilliant

[@georgielancaster1356]

I was shocked that AB sounded so old, then was shocked to realise his age. There should be a law that National Treasures get an extra 50 years, around the 50 year mark. We'd still have VW, if that were so. I feel that way about WW2 participants. And WW1... the nice ones, of course, not the war criminals! I show my age, when I say I think of WW1 as 60ish. Even when I adjust, WW2 men are 80ish. I know there are only crumbs of people left who actually served in WW2, all 100ish plus, and I wail inside that they are gone. All their experiences, with them. I don't really mourn my age, though I barely get about, now, but I really want my heroes to live to delight, to move, generations more, as they are - living beings.

[@samsum3738]

If he had never written a thing , i could still listen to him all day .

[@gwae48]

love him to pieces ! Love the reading at the end !!!❤❤❤👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

[@mcduffxyz]

This is a Master clas in the process of writing and characeririsation and basic Humanity. Love Him!

[@moeezS]

Only heard of him thanks to Stewart Lee's hilarious comedy special Tornado/Snowflake. Thanks for putting this up!

[@highdownmartin]

Beverly reached over and moved the plate of lemon fingers, to avoid them getting covered in blood that was spraying out of the neck of her now lifeless husband, as he lay on the Turkish rug. His headless torso lying still in contrast to the enormous shark that was thrashing around next to him, sending fragments of glass around the room…

[@nelsonwhaley6348]

I loved his Westminster Abbey chats...he above most of the mediocres.

[@pdjhh]

I didn’t realise how good Stewart Lee’s impression was 😂

[@darrenhoskins8382]

Aaaaw the piece at the end ☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️👌👍🙏

[@r.i.p.volodya]

I wanted to know if "The Habit of Art" would really be his final play... I love Alan's writing. In fact, I've taken more from Bennett than I ever got from Stoppard, e.g.

[@simonratcliffe2765]

Two full length plays since then: “People” and “Allelujah”. There’s a recent film of “Allelujah” too.

[@r.i.p.volodya]

@@simonratcliffe2765 Thank you VERY VERY much for drawing my attention to these plays 😁

[@ianmartinezcassmeyer]

I'm reading the book of his Talking Heads monologues. The man's words are amazing

[@annysqu]

Touching Eliot story

[@Carducci1959]

Hugely talented, and wonderfully down to earth!

[@robertclatworthy1857]

An absolute genius, the male version of Victoria Wood 😂😂

[@FF-so3su]

Thora was fantastic

[@gohumberto]

I put a Custard Cream under his chair, to see if Thora Hird would clean it up.

[@shawnanthony1992]

Erving Goffman would have liked that.

[@matthewhopkins4664]

He's the JL Austin of this

[@FF-so3su]

Waiting for the telegram made me cry

[@peterlivingstone]

"The one where the man puts his head down the loo..." "Trainspotting?" "Yes!..."😂

[@iestyndavies2675]

Cut 'the 'crust of 'teas'.

[@stevouk]

It's interesting that AB does not see himself as being able to write verbose, 'faux-literary' sentences. At the start of his 1979 TV play, "Afternoon Off", a rather pompous father (played by Ben Whitrow) writes a cheque for a waiter, stating, "I think you'll find that if you present this at any branch of Lloyd's Bank, you will find yourself adequately recompensed." It's not quite the same as Duncan Preston's character in "Dinnerladies" (the character is a Southerner for one thing, and Whitrow plays it as lower-middle-class) but it does suggest AB was being a little self-deprecating about his skills here.

[@t.p.mckenna]

Does nobody review subtitles? I'll suggest a few corrections, but I doubt anyone at the BFI will ever pick up on them, so this is mostly for my own amusement ... We have Brian Tufano correctly subbed at 7.31, but by 13.11 he's become 'Brian too far now' (subtextual irony, perhaps, as he's passed); 15:41 Michael Frame, better known as FRAYN; 30.31 Ian Foster, more usually known as E.M. FORSTER; 32.05 Not 'a Leeds ask him', but a Leeds AXIOM and at 50.00 'saved to centre ... ' which should be 'saved to sent to ....

[@georgielancaster1356]

Must have a link with yt corrections, which frequently picks up a perfectly rationally used word, correctly spelt, and changes it to something insanely out of place, and I only pick it up, after posting it.

[@janii4]

Robots don't know everything.

[@thirdperson6802]

Why do interviewers stick to prepared questions instead of listening to the interviewees response and building a conversation?

[@normanchristie4524]

An interesting point however too easy to get dragged into a particular area of investigation.

[@highdownmartin]

@Teesee indeed. The first question, did growing up in Leeds a long time ago influence your work? Ffs. It’s been asked a hundred times…

[@michaelcullen5308]

I can only imagine that during Alan's uninterrupted three-minute TS Eliot story, on one of those awful TV "talk" shows he would have been interrupted about 40 times.

[@normanchristie4524]

Oh gawd....! I remember Beverley Nichols.

[@stephenridley1153]

You must be nearly as old as me 😂

[@georgielancaster1356]

So do I! He liked cats. Wasn't he in intelligence in WW2? I remember reading something of his and reflecting how gently and charmingly he lived his life, and thinking of Alan Turing, and if he had gone into the arts world, he would have been nurtured and indulged and protected - and probably lived a long, happy life, but not taken years, it is estimated, from the length of WW2. Churchill was told about Turing's work. He could have sent for that cursed judge and given him a long lecture on what Britain owed Alan - but did nothing. Just makes me want to throw chairs, at the fury I feel over that redneck, prurient, vile judge. And my normality is very staid, middle class. The most I normally throw, year to year, is a tissue. If I were related to the judge, I would feel I had to keep wiping myself down with metho, I'd feel so unclean. I keep meaning to find out the name of the judge, so I can give people a name to despise. Forever, now, I think of Beverley Nichols, and it becomes a Pavlovian response, to think of Alan.

[@tonyduncan9852]

Shush.

[@SoulArsal]

​@@tonyduncan98526:44

[@monicahornyansky3045]

😊 19:38

[@FF-so3su]

Teas are the best😊👍

[@iestyndavies2675]

"Farewell 'Albert 'Jack' 'We know 'you'll be 'back' 'You may be 10 feet tall' But you don't 'scare us at all Your big,bold and 'tough' But your not all that 'rough' And you 'scream' as you 'plummet' 'away' 'She 'rides a black bike' She 'drives through the night She's 'big' 'round' 'and' 'fat' But 'dont' you' dare her tell her that' Her 'glove' starts to 'glean' And gives a' 'scream' as she 'plummets' 'away' 'Ooh!..'hello... 'Bye for now.'

[@heartofoak45]

WHY OH WHY HAS ALAN BENNETT NOT RECEIVED A KNIGHTHOOD?????

[@hilaryepstein6013]

He was offered a knighthood in 1996 but he turned it down. He said "it would be like having to wear a suit every day".

[@tonyhibbs1600]

I could be wrong but I think I have read he has been put forward for one but has refused

[@johnglenn30csardas]

A K would be insufficient.

[@franrowe8696]

What a legend.

[@willhovell9019]

He has probably refused a knighthood, after successive governments attempts to destroy public libraries in England

[@chasleask8533]

"Your parents were Northern working class" . . . . . . . . .How exotic ! Ee bah goom .

[@jestermoon]

7:08 ❤😅 7:40

[@billythedog-309]

The fact that the BFI has to have a special northern voices section is a real condemnation of the whole setup.

[@iestyndavies2675]

'Bucket'(bouquet)..'telephone 'speaking 'voice'

[@Omnicient.]

Could only happen in the north! Not so! I come from Ireland and they were/are identical in behaviour.

[@patrickhicks9880]

My grandmother met Dennis potter she disliked him because he had a clammy handshake I thought that was a bit like an Alan Bennett line

[@dominiccavendish1641]

fantastic but some of the subtitles, BFI... "Michael Frame".. !

[@malacca1951]

What a pity the presenter could not speak without saying 'Er' or 'Erm' SO many times! His first question contained eight and there were dozens later! Given that he had his notes written down, you'd expect few hesitations and 'fillers'! (He'll never win 'Just A Minute' on Radio4 !

[@geoffrundel3343]

Being a fan of you would you like to do another epic The man in the van to even things out gender wise name as lord Klondike ❤

[@MrLetmein2011]

I find myself wondering what his views would be on current obsession’s . Immigration , Pronouns. Brexit , The conflict in Gaza . I’m sure he’d surprise us with his views.

[@Peter-ov6xh]

I've just been reading his diaries from the 90s and he's quite left-wing. The only thing that pleased him when he revisited his old school was that all the best pupils were Asian. Also says that policemen were punished for mistreating police dogs, but probably wouldn't have been had they killed black people. And other examples.

[@FF-so3su]

Alan is great but not overly impressed with the interviewer

[@mileshanmore4327]

How come?

[@googleisgay3289]

"Sweet spot of tragic comedy" and Alan Bennett with his hair about to fall off: "Oh oh oh oh (please don't say it like that)!" Don't make the summit for those who trekked up a godawful mountain into something so regrettably disgusting as a sweet spot. My God. Did we only climb this high to lose our brains?

[@iestyndavies2675]

'Come 'on' 'Allen' 'isn't 'common' 'class'

[@romyromweber4195]

7 h

[@jenniferfairless8198]

Why did the interviewer have to continually read from his script. Not a natural interviewer.

[@stuarthastie6374]

Plot. ""An Inocent brod", i rwal wish he hd been sceptical of the ctoes tall tail nd done some research into tailoring. Clearly she was a liar and he hd nevwr hd Saville Row suit.

[@TL-ps5qo]

Awful private school 'PS' people, such as Alan Bennett, are gifted opportunities. Their obnoxious and anti-social attitudes are unacceptable.

[@magistrafortis]

Alan Bennett is a wit wordsmith & raconteur & was not a private school boy. He's a clever northerner who has done very well for himself & given millions of people pleasure made them laugh & think - and what sort of person are you exactly!?

[@TimothyAsbridge_TENOR]

I’m sorry but your post is very incoherent. What exactly are you trying to say?

[@artymiss77]

He went to a state grammar school not private school!

[@hilarylazard7554]

What?!,

[@dogsbody49]

I could listen to him all day. A national treasure indeed.

[@stringer-ik1pc]

Im surprised hes not been cancelled for writing too white.

[@yinoveryang4246]

..not yet. It must be quite uncomfortable for Bennet to find himself FORCED to descend the hierarchy of virtue signallers. To a point where the looming prospect of 'cancellation' becomes a real possibility. It's a remarkable shift for those individuals, particularly the older generation of the left who've witnessed the causes they championed materialise before their eyes. But where has it left them? Their once outspoken and 'honest' voices now display a noticeable change in demeanour, opting to keep their heads down with an air of bewilderment. What once were democratic choices have now become forced.

[@PK-yf3hd]

He's one of the metropolitan set and absolved from accountability