Alan Bennett at 80: Bennett Meets Hytner

Based on The History Boys by Alan Bennett

Sir Nicholas Hytner interviews living legend and playwright Alan Bennett on the eve of his 80th birthday. Ranging across 40 years of his work for stage, television and cinema, it is the first time these long term collaborators (The Madness of King George, The History Boys and more) have engaged in a full-length debate on television about the art of what they do.

Watch
Access

Licence: ERA Licence required

Content
  • Type: Analysis
  • Channel: BBC Four
  • Duration: 59'16''
  • Broadcast date: 2014
Usage

UK only
Staff and students of licensed education establishments only
Cannot be adapted

  • BBC Logo
  • Literary Resource
Other Archive resources
Lady in the Van | BBC Two | 2016

Lady in the Van (2015)

The true story of Miss Shepherd, an eccentric woman of uncertain origins, who 'temporarily' parked her broken-down van in writer Alan Bennett's London driveway for 15 years.
The History Boys | BBC Radio 4 | 2020

Start the Week | Nicholas Hytner

Hytner made his name and fortune in the 1990s with the musical Miss Saigon. Further successes came with theatre and film productions of The Madness of King George and The History Boys, and the sell-out One Man, Two Guvnors. During the year of the pandemic Hytner has sought to keep the theatre afloat with performances of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads.