He is one of Britain’s most famous authors, depicted in films, plays and books – including Nina Stibbe’s hit memoir. So why doesn’t Bennett appear in its new TV adaptation?
Versions of Alan Bennett have been hard to escape over the last six months. First came Nicholas Hytner’s film of The Lady in the Van, featuring three depictions of its author – Alex Jennings as both “Alan Bennett”, a diffident north London resident in the 70s and 80s, and “AB” the observing writer, plus a present-day cameo from Bennett himself.
Besides his 2015 diary in the LRB, edited by his friend Mary-Kay Wilmers, subsequent sightings have included a regional revival of the autobiographical play Untold Stories, and the Radio 4 comedy Boswell’s Life of Bennett, in which the time-travelling biographer (Miles Jupp) repeatedly urges the Yorkshireman (Alistair McGowan) to reveal his secrets – “the cream cracker under the settee” – only to be told “Don’t be daft”.
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