Superb

The inimitable Alan Bennett at his very best. Entertaining, thought provoking and laugh-out-loud from beginning to end. Excellent acting by some of our most renowned actors. Will listen to this again and again.

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Genuine wit.

This collection gathers great performers and performances and shows a Master craftsman at work. Wit, wordplay. Comedy tinged with melancholy.

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Entertaining listening

Some brilliant story's though one or two I struggled with probably make more sense listening to them again, on the whole very enjoyable.

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4 people found this helpful

My favourite story is The Lady in the van.

"The Lady in the van" is one of the best stories. Maggie Smith is superb.

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A jewel

This is a jewel. Not to be missed. Wonderful performances and wonderful listening. Loved it all

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A Vintage Bennett Bonanza!

Here are 12 vintage BBC dramatisations of an eclectic range of Alan Bennett's plays from The History Boys and The Madness of George lll, to his exploration of Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt and The Lady in the Van and, for me the most poignant, the autobiographical Cocktail Sticks. Wide-ranging, they are all bound together by Bennett's ability to make great and banal events equally moving and involving, to see into lives and minds not usually looked into, and to convey the aching voids and disappointments in characters' lives in a single phrase or piece of dialogue. ('Why didn't I have a childhood?' he asks his doing-her-best, inadequate mother.)

Bennett can always inject humour into scenarios teetering on tragedy - be it the raving George lll, Hector the groping history teacher, demented Miss Sheppard living in the van on Bennett's land, or the old lady trapped in an old people's home by her bossy daughter. The autobiographical plays featuring his own stumbling adolescence ('Girls always felt safe with me - probably because they were.') and the achingly painful but affectionate lives of his parents (his mother so ashamed of the smell of fat when 'Dad,' a butcher, made dripping twice a week in the basement) with his mother's ultimate dementia make unforgettable listening. The themes may sound depressing, but their humanity lifts them above it.

And then it's not just the words but the performances from the full casts of the cream of stage actors including Thora Hird (to whom Bennett includes a fitting eulogy), Maggie Smith, Patricia Routledge, John Gielgud, Alex Jennings. They are, everyone of them, quite simply, the best - and there is some lovely singing too. Whilst listening to these plays I miss the inlay card in CDs which would have given me the titles of the plays and the cast lists. The introductions on the download are perfunctory and rushed - enough to confuse a listener not already familiar with them.

Alan Bennett's newest instalments of his Diaries, Keeping On Keeping On 2005-2014, is available as a download from Audible, but lasting only 2hours 16minutes it can give only a taste of the 736page book. It is read by Bennett which is a bonus, but there is plenty of Bennett's own voice on Alan Bennett Plays too - and ten hours more listening than the Diaries.

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17 people found this helpful

Bennett Bliss

Fans of Alan's work will need little prompting to download this collection of radio plays broadcast on Radio 4. There is probably something new here for everyone, as well as something very familiar that will bring much pleasure on being reheard. A more serious work "forty years on" not all of which I was able to follow begins the collection with the cast including John Gielgud. There are several plays featuring Dame Thora Hird more reminiscent of the "Talking Heads" series of monologues. One of Alan's hits, "the history boys" works very well in the Radio adaptation although I've seen it on stage and the film with the familiar cast includes James Cordon and Richard Griffiths. The final autobiographical pieces centred around his parents and feature Alan himself as well as Alex Jennings playing 'him'. Thinking of my own mother who was also a product of North Yorkshire trying to adapt to Southern sophistication Bennet's work brought me close to tears.

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10 people found this helpful

The Genius Of Mr Bennett

A fine collection of radio plays with a stellar cast of actors. Each play stands alone in its quality and content. I’ve listened to a lot of Mr Bennett’s work via Audible and this compilation is amongst his best work.
A National Treasure....Cherish his work....

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Excellent content. Chapters unnamed and random

Cannot fault the content; Alan Bennett needs no appraisal. The audio book ought to have a list of the plays in running order, with named chapters.

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Beyond brilliant

I loved every minute. Chapter headings would help but the actual reading/performance is memorable

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