TV preview: Alan Bennett's Diaries

A candid look into the mind of Alan Bennett, one of Britain's best-loved writers, who at 82 shows no signs of slowing down.
IN HIS OWN WORDS: Alan Bennetts year is caught on film as well as in the writers diary.IN HIS OWN WORDS: Alan Bennetts year is caught on film as well as in the writers diary.
IN HIS OWN WORDS: Alan Bennetts year is caught on film as well as in the writers diary.

Inspired by his acerbic and often hilarious diaries, this film shows Bennett as he’s never been seen before: following him to New York, the scene of his early triumph in Beyond The Fringe, to accept an award from the city’s Public Library; to Shepherd’s Bush to record an episode of Private Passions for Radio 3 and open up about the importance of music in his life; to his local community-run library in Primrose Hill which, he despairs, some would rather see turned into a Pizza Hut; to the East Coast railway line, which he’d like to see renationalised, and the village in Yorkshire he calls home.

Intimate encounters, filmed over the course of a year, reveal a writer who is still as angry and irreverent as he was in his 20s. Bennett speaks about his relationship with his partner of 23 years, Rupert Thomas, describes a recent trip to his barber in Camden Town, and confesses that he’s always wanted to keep a donkey.

Alan Bennett’s Diaries, BBC2, Christmas Eve, 9pm

Related topics: