46-667: Untold Stories may refer to: Books [ edit ] Untold Stories , a 2005 book by Alan Bennett Film and TV [ edit ] The Untold Story , a 1993 Hong Kong crime-thriller film Untold Stories of the E.R. , a docudrama television series Untold Stories , a spin-off of the Filipino talk show Face to Face Music [ edit ] Albums [ edit ] Untold Stories (Hot Rize album) , 1987 Untold Stories (Heitor Pereira album) , 2001 Songs [ edit ] "Untold Stories" (Kathy Mattea song) ,
92-405: A 1988 song "Untold Stories" (Buju Banton song) , a 1995 song See also [ edit ] Untold Story (disambiguation) Stories Untold (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Untold Stories . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to
138-751: A brief run in Brighton garnered a lukewarm response. When the revue transferred to the Fortune Theatre in London, opening in early May 1961, in a revised production by Donald Albery and William Donaldson and directed by Eleanor Fazan , it became a true sensation. This was helped in large part by a favourable review by Kenneth Tynan . In 1962, the show transferred to the John Golden Theatre in New York, with its original cast. President John F. Kennedy attended
184-474: A chair from press baron Rupert Murdoch . He also declined a CBE in 1988 and a knighthood in 1996. He has stated that, although he is not a republican, he would never wish to be knighted, saying it would be a bit like having to wear a suit for the rest of his life. In December 2011 Bennett returned to Lawnswood School , nearly 60 years after he left, to unveil the renamed Alan Bennett Library. He said he "loosely" based The History Boys on his experiences at
230-408: A few minutes' walk away to Primrose Hill with his partner Rupert Thomas, the former editor of The World of Interiors magazine. Bennett also had a long-term relationship with his former housekeeper, Anne Davies, until her death in 2009. Bennett is an agnostic . He was raised Anglican and gradually "left it [the church] over the years". In 1988, Bennett declined the award of Commander of
276-540: A higher weekly fee for him, but by the time the agent's fee was deducted Cook actually earned less than the others from the initial run. The majority of the sketches were by Cook and were largely based on material written for other revues. Among the entirely new material were "The End of the World", "TVPM" and "The Great Train Robbery". Cook and Moore revived some of the sketches on their later television and stage shows, most famously
322-535: A jazz band while at university in Oxford . Moore in turn recommended Alan Bennett , who had had a hit at the Fringe a few years earlier. Bassett also chose Jonathan Miller , who had been a Footlights star in 1957. Miller recommended Cook. Bennett and Miller were already pursuing careers in academia and medicine respectively, but Cook had an agent, having written a West End revue for Kenneth Williams . Cook's agent negotiated
368-669: A large body of non-fictional prose, and broadcasting and many appearances as an actor. Despite a long history with both the National Theatre and the BBC, Bennett never writes on commission, saying "I don't work on commission, I just do it on spec. If people don't want it then it's too bad." Bennett's many works for television include his first play for the medium, A Day Out in 1972, A Little Outing in 1977, Intensive Care in 1982, An Englishman Abroad in 1983, and A Question of Attribution in 1991. But perhaps his most famous screen work
414-648: A minimal set, looking at events of the day and, with Shakespeare, the past. It effectively represented the views and disappointments of the first generation of British people to grow up after World War II , and gave voice to a sense of the loss of national purpose with the end of the British Empire . Although all of the cast contributed material, the most often quoted pieces were those by Cook, many of which had appeared before in his Cambridge Footlights revues. The show broke new ground with Peter Cook's impression of then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan ; on one occasion, this
460-650: A number of musical items in the show, using Dudley Moore's music, most famously an arrangement of the Colonel Bogey March which resists Moore's repeated attempts to bring it to an end. The show prefigured the Satire Boom of the 1960s. Without it, there might not have been either That Was the Week That Was or Private Eye , the satirical magazine which originated at the same time, that partially survived due to financial support from Peter Cook, and that served as
506-432: A performance on 10 February 1963. The show continued in New York, with most of the original cast, until 1964, when Paxton Whitehead replaced Miller, while the London version continued with a different cast until 1966. The revue was widely considered to be ahead of its time, both in its unapologetic willingness to debunk figures of authority, and by virtue of its inherently surrealistic comedic vein. Humiliation of authority
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#1732890703227552-615: A version starring Kevin Bishop as Moore, Tom Goodman-Hill as Cook, Fergus Craig as Alan Bennett and Colin Hoult as Jonathan Miller. It subsequently embarked on a nationwide tour. The creation, performance and aftermath of the show is covered in the 2004 film Not Only But Always . Good Evening , Roy Smiles' play about the Beyond The Fringe team was broadcast on Radio 4 in 2008, with Benedict Cumberbatch as Dudley Moore. In 2017, Beyond
598-640: Is also known for a wide variety of audio books, including his readings of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Winnie-the-Pooh . Bennett was born on 9 May 1934 in Armley , Leeds , West Riding of Yorkshire . The younger son of a Co-op butcher, Walter, and his wife, Lilian Mary (née Peel), Bennett attended Christ Church, Upper Armley, Church of England School (in the same class as Barbara Taylor Bradford ), and then Leeds Modern School (now Lawnswood School ). He has an older brother. Bennett learned Russian at
644-683: Is the 1988 Talking Heads series of monologues for television which were later performed at the Comedy Theatre in London in 1992. A second set of six Talking Heads followed a decade later. Bennett wrote the play Enjoy in 1980. It barely scraped a run of seven weeks at the Vaudeville Theatre , in spite of the stellar cast of Joan Plowright , Colin Blakely , Susan Littler , Philip Sayer, Liz Smith (who replaced Joan Hickson during rehearsals) and, in his first West End role, Marc Sinden . It
690-534: The BBC re-used expensive videotape rather than keep it in the archives. However, in 2014 it was announced that audio copies of the entire series had been found. Bennett's first stage play Forty Years On , directed by Patrick Garland and starring John Gielgud , was produced in 1968. His second play, Getting On , also directed by Garland and starring Kenneth More , opened in 1971. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, with screenplays, short stories, novellas,
736-490: The Beyond the Fringe team said that they were not ridiculing the efforts of those involved in the war, but were challenging the subsequent media portrayal of them. Beyond the Fringe was a forerunner to British television programmes That Was the Week That Was , At Last the 1948 Show , and Monty Python's Flying Circus . As with the established comedy revue, it was a series of satirical sketches and musical pieces using
782-694: The Bodleian Library , stating that it was a gesture of thanks repaying a debt he felt he owed to the British welfare state that had given him educational opportunities which his humble family background would otherwise never have afforded. In September 2015, Bennett endorsed Jeremy Corbyn 's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election . The following month, after Corbyn's election victory, Bennett said: "I approve of him. If only because it brings Labour back to what they ought to be thinking about." Following
828-608: The Joint Services School for Linguists during his national service before applying for a scholarship at Oxford University. He was accepted by Exeter College, Oxford , and graduated with a first-class degree in history. While at Oxford he performed comedy with a number of eventually successful actors in the Oxford Revue . He remained at the university for several years, working as a junior lecturer of Medieval History at Magdalen College , before deciding, in 1960, that he
874-584: The Royal National Theatre . He received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Play for Single Spies in 1990. Next, he made his breakthrough with the play The Madness of George III in 1992. For this play, he received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play . The following year he staged a theatrical production of the BBC series Talking Heads in 1992. He continued receiving acclaim for his plays The Lady in
920-559: The Society of London Theatre Special Award . Bennett was born in Leeds and attended Oxford University , where he studied history and performed with the Oxford Revue . He stayed to teach and research medieval history at the university for several years. His collaboration as writer and performer with Dudley Moore , Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe at
966-622: The two-hander " One Leg Too Few ". Miller told the press in March 1960 that the show would "be anti-establishment, anti-capital punishment, anti-colour bar and anti-1960. But it will be all very serious stuff, sharp, bitter and to the point." The show's run in Edinburgh was immensely successful. Before beginning its run in the West End, the show had great success at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, but
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#17328907032271012-413: The 1960 Edinburgh Festival brought him instant fame and later a Special Tony Award . He gave up academia, and turned to writing full time, his first stage play, Forty Years On , being produced in 1968. He also became known for writing dramatic monologues Talking Heads which ran in 1988 and 1999 on BBC1 earning a British Academy Television Award . Bennett gained acclaim with his various plays at
1058-567: The 1960 Edinburgh Festival and went on to play in London's West End and then in America, both on tour and on New York 's Broadway in the early 1960s. Hugely successful, it is widely regarded as seminal to the " satire boom ", the rise of satirical comedy in 1960s Britain. The idea for Beyond the Fringe came from Robert Ponsonby , who was the director of the Edinburgh International Festival from 1956 to 1960. Ponsonby's idea
1104-469: The Broadway performance was said to have stood up and shouted 'rotters!' at a sketch he found distasteful, before apparently sitting down again and enjoying the remainder of the show, while another, at the first performance in Edinburgh, allegedly stood up and declared that the 'young bounders don't know the first thing about it!' and promptly left the auditorium. In response to these negative audience reactions,
1150-582: The Fringe was not owned by the BBC, however, the quartet enjoyed relative carte blanche. The only protocol they were obliged to adhere to was that, by law, their scripts had to be sent to the Lord Chamberlain for approval prior to performance, a requirement abolished in 1968. Most specifically, its lampooning of the British war effort in a sketch titled "The Aftermyth of War" was scorned by some war veterans for its supposed insensitivity. One British visitor to
1196-641: The Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre. The History Boys won six Tony Awards on Broadway, including best play, best performance by a leading actor in a play (Richard Griffiths), best performance by a featured actress in a play ( Frances de la Tour ) and best direction of a play (Nicholas Hytner). A film version of The History Boys was released in the UK in October 2006. In his 2005 prose collection Untold Stories , Bennett wrote of
1242-813: The National Theatre as part of a double bill with the monologue Hymn . The production was directed by Bennett's long-term collaborator Nicholas Hytner. It was well-received, and transferred to the Duchess Theatre in the West End of London , being subsequently adapted for radio broadcast by BBC Radio 4 . In July 2018, Allelujah! , a comic drama by Bennett about a National Health Service hospital threatened with closure, opened at London's Bridge Theatre to critical acclaim. Bennett lived for 40 years on Gloucester Crescent in Camden Town in London and in 2006 moved
1288-478: The National Touring Company took it on a nationwide tour for six months as Beyond the Fringe '65 under the auspices of Alexander H. Cohen, with the cast consisting of Bob Cessna , Donald Cullen, Joel Fabiani , and James Valentine . Slight changes were made to adapt the show for American audiences, for instance the opening number (discussing America) was retitled "Home Thoughts from Abroad". The show
1334-585: The Order of the British Empire (CBE) and in 1996 declined a knighthood . In September 2005, Bennett revealed that, in 1997, he had undergone treatment for colorectal cancer and described the illness as a "bore". His chances of survival were given as being "much less" than 50% and surgeons had told him they removed a "rock-bun" sized tumour. He began Untold Stories (published 2005) thinking it would be published posthumously, but his cancer went into remission. In
1380-583: The Van based on his experiences with an eccentric woman called Miss Shepherd , who lived on Bennett's driveway in a series of dilapidated vans for more than fifteen years. It was first published in 1989 as an essay in the London Review of Books . In 1990 he published it in book form. In 1999 he adapted it into a stage play, which starred Maggie Smith and was directed by Nicholas Hytner . The stage play includes two characters named Alan Bennett. On 21 February 2009 it
1426-407: The Van in 1999, The History Boys in 2004, and The Habit of Art in 2009. He won his second Tony Award for Best Play for The History Boys in 2005. The following plays were later adapted into films, The Madness of King George (1994), for which he received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, The History Boys (2005), and The Lady in the Van (2015). Bennett
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1472-528: The autobiographical sketches which form a large part of the book Bennett says of himself "I am homosexual", but also mentions "flings" with women. Previously Bennett had referred to questions about his sexuality as like asking a man who has just crawled across the Sahara desert to choose between Perrier or Malvern mineral water. In October 2008, Bennett announced that he was donating his entire archive of working papers, unpublished manuscripts, diaries and books to
1518-764: The cinema. Entitled The Madness of King George (1994), the film received four Academy Award nominations: for Bennett's writing and the performances of Nigel Hawthorne and Helen Mirren . It won the award for best art direction. In 1995 Bennett wrote and hosted the three-part BBC documentary series The Abbey , directed by Jonathan Stedall. The programme provides a personal tribute to, and tour of, Westminster Abbey . Bennett's critically acclaimed The History Boys won three Laurence Olivier Awards in 2005, for Best New Play, Best Actor ( Richard Griffiths ), and Best Direction ( Nicholas Hytner ), having previously won Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and Evening Standard Awards for Best Actor and Best Play. Bennett also received
1564-573: The death of Jonathan Miller in 2019, Bennett became the only surviving member of the original Beyond the Fringe quartet which had also included Peter Cook and Dudley Moore . Selected credits Bennett was made an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford , in 1987. He was also awarded a D.Litt by the University of Leeds in 1990 and an honorary doctorate from Kingston University in 1996. In 1998 he refused an honorary doctorate from Oxford University, in protest at its acceptance of funding for
1610-670: The early years of BBC 2 , took its title from this production. It consisted of performances of material that was popular in theatrical revue before the advent of Beyond the Fringe . The show's success was not limited to the UK. In 1962, it also opened in South Africa. Next it arrived in the US. First the Broadway Company opened on 27 October 1962, then it was performed by the National Company in 1963. Subsequently, opening on 8 October 1964,
1656-707: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Untold_Stories&oldid=1150950035 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Alan Bennett Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. Over his entertainment career he has received numerous awards and honours including two BAFTA Awards , four Laurence Olivier Awards , and two Tony Awards . He also earned an Academy Award nomination for his film The Madness of King George (1994). In 2005 he received
1702-487: The mental illness that his mother and other family members suffered. At the National Theatre in late 2009 Nicholas Hytner directed Bennett's play The Habit of Art , about the relationship between the poet W. H. Auden and the composer Benjamin Britten . Bennett's play People opened at the National Theatre in October 2012. In December that year, Cocktail Sticks , an autobiographical play by Bennett, premièred at
1748-406: The model for the later American Spy magazine. Cook and Moore formed a comedy duo and appeared in the popular television show Not Only... But Also , and the 1967 film Bedazzled . Cook also launched his club, The Establishment , around this time. Many of the members of Monty Python recall being inspired by Beyond the Fringe . The retrospective show Before the Fringe , broadcast during
1794-540: The school and his admission to Oxford. Lawnswood School dedicated its library to the writer after he emerged as a vocal campaigner against public library cuts. Plans to shut local libraries were "wrong and very short-sighted", Bennett said, adding: "We're impoverishing young people." Beyond the Fringe Beyond the Fringe was a British comedy stage revue written and performed by Alan Bennett , Peter Cook , Jonathan Miller , and Dudley Moore . It debuted at
1840-440: Was broadcast as a radio play on BBC Radio 4, with Maggie Smith reprising her role and Alan Bennett playing himself. He adapted the story again for a 2015 film, with Maggie Smith reprising her role again, and Nicholas Hytner directing again. In the film Alex Jennings plays the two versions of Bennett, although Alan Bennett appears in a cameo at the very end of the film. Bennett adapted his 1991 play The Madness of George III for
1886-481: Was directed by Ronald Eyre . A new production of Enjoy attracted very favourable notices during its 2008 UK tour and moved to the West End of London in January 2009. The West End show took over £1 million in advance ticket sales and even extended the run to cope with demand. The production starred Alison Steadman , David Troughton , Richard Glaves, Carol Macready and Josie Walker . Bennett wrote The Lady in
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1932-586: Was not suited to being an academic. In August 1960, Bennett – along with Dudley Moore , Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook – gained fame after an appearance at the Edinburgh Festival in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe , with the show continuing in London and New York. He also appeared in My Father Knew Lloyd George . His television comedy sketch series On the Margin (1966) was erased;
1978-465: Was performed with Macmillan in the audience, and Cook added an ad lib ridiculing Macmillan for turning up to watch. The show is credited with giving many other performers the courage to be satirical and more improvisational in their manner, and broke the conventions of not lampooning the Royal Family or the government of the day. Shakespearean drama was another target of their comedy. There were also
2024-502: Was revived in slightly altered form in Los Angeles in 2000 and 2001 by Joseph Dunn's ReEstablishment Theater to critical acclaim. The four original members of Beyond the Fringe feature prominently as characters in the play Pete and Dud: Come Again , by Chris Bartlett and Nick Awde . Appropriately, that comedy-drama had a sellout run at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe before transferring to London's West End at The Venue, in 2006, in
2070-603: Was something only previously delved into in The Goon Show and, arguably, Hancock's Half Hour , with such parliamentarians as Sir Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan coming under special scrutiny—although the BBC were predisposed to frown upon it. Macmillan—according to Cook—was not particularly fond of the slurred caricature and charade of senile forgetfulness (marked by a failure to pronounce 'Conservative Party' coherently) handed down on him in Cook's impersonation. Since Beyond
2116-648: Was to bring together the best parts of the revues staged by the Cambridge Footlights and The Oxford Revue at the Edinburgh Fringe in previous years. He said that the Festival should put on a late-night revue "to beat The Fringe at its own game." By 1960, the Festival was so firmly established that "it required for its health some good-humoured self-mockery." Ponsonby's assistant, John "Johnny" Bassett , recommended Dudley Moore , who had played with Bassett in
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