Alan
Bennett is the head master of class. Discuss.
Feature interview by Craig Driver
Alan Bennett is a national treasure.
It sounds so pithy when you read it aloud. Reducing a man’s importance
to a phrase most likely uttered a hundred times before just
seems lazy. He may now be in his mid seventies but in some
manner he’s always been the sweet and humble Sheffield
lad hiding behind figures far more precocious than him. In
the early sixties it was Dudley Moore and Peter Cook in the
satirical revue Beyond the Fringe; in the early nineties
it was the six narrators of his Talking Heads series. Now
with The History Boys coming to the big screen Alan Bennett
has eight fresh young faces and a wheelbarrow full of Tony
and Olivier Awards to hide behind.
Born in Leeds, Bennett was schooled
at a Leeds state grammar school, learned Russian at the
Joint Services School for Linguists during his National
Service, and gained a place at Cambridge University before
applying for a scholarship at Exeter College, Oxford. Bennett
never seemed to have much time for the Oxbridge pomp and
circumstance. For him working on The History Boys with
eight unruly teenage boys was much more his cup of tea
despite the constant bullying. “It’s
true they often teased me and took the piss. It might have
been different though if they had been working with Alec
Guinness but I like to think they still wouldn’t have
towed the line. They’ve no need to. I don’t really
mind them taking the piss.”
When asked if the group of lads found
it difficult grasping the array of literary flourishes
in the film he’s quick
to state how well they adapted: “That was slightly
more risky but we did have a couple of weeks between them
at an early about two weeks before we opened on the West
End where we all started from scratch and went over things
as best we could.” Alan is also quick to point out
that the great thing about actors is their willingness and
eagerness to adapt, “The great asset of actors is that
they never stop learning; they never want to stop learning.
Most undergraduates as soon as they leave University stop
learning to some degree. One thing about the film was that
some of the boys had never been on the stage before when
they were in the play and most of them had never done any
real filming. There were never any techniques or scaling
it down. They just seemed to know quite instinctively how
to play the parts.”
Many of Bennett’s plays draw on his background in
Leeds and while he is often lauded for his observations of
northern life, the sheer wryness and wit of his work is often
undervalued. When asked about how his work is perceived he’s
quick to explain that “once I’ve done it I instantly
think “what comes next?” It’s always harder
to follow something that’s been a moderate success
than something which has been a total failure.” It
turned out that the transition from the total success of
the West End and Broadway stage versions to film adaptation
was a fairly simple process: “there really is not that
too much material in the screenplay that we had to change.
There are a few new scenes in the film. I was supposed to
go the week before to make some changes but there really
weren’t any major alterations. The only thing we had
to really change was the word ‘Rugger’ to ‘Rugby’,
and when using the word ‘wank’ we had to have
the boys make that gesture [at which point Alan Bennett makes
a wanking motion with his right arm]. It was just little
tiny stuff. The other one was where we had a character say “oh
it’s the end of term, I’ve got in Oxford, and
I thought I would push the boat out’. We were thinking
of changing it to “Oh, it’s the end of term,
I’ve got into Oxford, I thought I’d roll out
the red carpet” which of course really sounds even
more daft.”
The History Boys is a film awash with
references to the sheer prestige of attending Oxford and
Cambridge and the boys’ constant attempts to play the Oxbridge entrance
system. While Bennett attended Oxford and at one point seemed
destined to take up an Academic career he himself has mixed
feelings about his university education. “My school
was a state school in Leeds up in Yorkshire and no one really
went to Oxford but the Headmaster who had been to Cambridge
decided to put a few of us forward for the interview and
all of us eventually got in much to his delight. It wasn’t
the Holy Grail in those days as I’d never been to Oxford
before. I think it was the contrast between Leeds which was
black and sooty in those days and Cambridge which was like
somewhere out of Fairy story really. When it was in the grip
of a hard frost it just looked wonderful. I think the reason
it carries so much weight is that it used to give you a brass
neck to go out in the world. Oxford and Cambridge is really
just the McGuffin in the movie. It really is just an excuse
to get to know the boys and their characters.” Bennett
is also keen to explain his reasons for focusing in on the
now defunct Oxbridge entrance exam.: “I also twigged
what somebody ought to have taught me but never had, namely
that there was a journalistic side to answering an examination
question; that going for the wrong end of the stick was more
attention-grabbing than a less conventional approach, however
balanced so you just had to busk it really. Nobody had ever
tutored me in examination techniques or conceded that such
techniques existed, this omission I suspect to be put down
to sheer snobbery or the notion (ascribed [in The History
Boys] to Hector) that all such considerations were practically
indecent.”
Bennett’s cuddly denunciation of his Oxbridge days
could perhaps be linked to his staunch humanitarian stance.
The manner in which humans interact and treat each other
has always seemed paramount in everything Bennett does. In
1998, he refused an honorary doctorate from Oxford University,
in protest at its links with the press baron Rupert Murdoch
and has reputedly declined the C.B.E. (Commander of the Order
of the British Empire) in 1988 and a Knighthood in 1996.
Such acts of moral certitude lead nicely to Bennett’s
admission that “I have no nostalgia for my Oxford days
at all and am happy never to have to sit an examination again.
In playwriting there are no examinations unless, that is,
you count the viva voce the audience puts the actors through
each night.” For Bennett, the true enjoyment in his
work comes from the camaraderie in the theatre despite the
odd prank. “I don’t mind the larks at all. I’m
used to it and I’m no threat to anyone really. They
actually did some video links to fit in between some scenes
for the play when we were on the West End and one of the
boys actually teased me that ‘it was the best part
of the play’. They often joked that it was no ‘Lady
in the Van’. Bennett is reluctant to admit it but the
strong sense of friendship and human ties that run throughout
The History Boys come from his Beyond the Fringe experiences. “A
lot of the thought behind the play came from my own experiences
at Cambridge and the dynamics of my relationship with Peter
Cook, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore. I mean it was always
fun but I only worked with them for 3 and a half years really
but whenever we got back together again it would be fun even
if I was the one that often got sat on as it were.”
In September 2005, Bennett revealed
that, in 1997, he underwent treatment for cancer, and described
the illness as a "bore".
His chances of survival were given as being "much less" than
50%. For once, where illness too often steals away those
most precious to us, Bennett survived. Not to be too Daily
Mail about it all but one can only hope Bennett continues
to live, work, and inspire a whole new generation. The man
with the common touch it would seem has struck gold once
more with The History Boys and his message of equality and
understanding over elitism and disdain.
Never one to blow his own trumpet and often refreshingly
humble Bennett is a boy amongst men and all the better for
it. He may hide behind his creations like a reluctant old
teddy bear but his words speak more truth than most. A lovely
man has never been so cherished in a world awash with cynicism.
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