Legendary writer Alan Bennett isn’t a fan of modern TV. “Things that are lauded to the skies I cannot see the virtue of,” he said at a rare public appearance last night.
The History Boys author admitted he isn’t the best audience: his taste in TV is “terrible” and he finds it hard to watch other people’s work as it makes him feel bad about his own. “You read something which is better than you can do and that’s depressing. And then you read something that’s worse, and that’s depressing too,” he joked.
Bennett, who is from Yorkshire and went to Oxford University in the 1950s, said that he felt that his college, Exeter, hadn’t improved on admitting people of different classes since he attended. “It was about half-half state school boys and public school, and the notion was at that time that this ratio would go on improving so there were more and more state school boys” Bennett said. “Of course that hasn’t happened”.
Speaking about his northern roots in a Q&A at the BFI Southbank, a sprightly Bennett also hinted that he’d put down his pen at 88. He first called writing “what I do” before stopping himself and saying “or what I did, I’m not doing so much now”. Many fans will hope he has a few more ideas yet.
