The Latest Breaking News from Alan Bennett

The Choral review – Ralph Fiennes makes pleasant music in low-volume drama

The actor is a reliably committed presence in this gentle Alan Bennett-scripted first world war tale which might have worked better on stage

The Guardian - US · Sep 5, 2025

Spinal Tap II, Julia Roberts and Paul Thomas Anderson: the best films of autumn 2025

An original Alan Bennett screenplay, a classy star turn for George Clooney and a Bruce Springsteen biopic are all on their way to the big screen

The Guardian - UK · Aug 25, 2025

Clive at Arcola Theatre review: it's hard to care while watching this pointless production

2/5 The set design is the only saving grace in Michael Wynne’s play about a clean-freak loser and his cactus

Evening Standard · Aug 3, 2025

Alan Bennett at 90: ‘What will people think? I don’t care any more’

In his 10th decade The History Boys writer is as prolific as ever with a war film in the works and a new sex-fuelled novella set in a home for the elderly. He talks about mourning Maggie Smith, turning down a knighthood and what he makes of Donald Trump

The Guardian - UK · Nov 2, 2024

OPINION - Miquita Oliver's London Question: what place in the city means the most to you?

I’ve been thinking about the word “history” and what it really means to think about the past. People often refer to history as something that they “failed in school”. But really, history is, as Alan Bennett put it so beautifully in his 2004 play The History Boys, “just one f***ing…

Evening Standard · Oct 24, 2024

Maggie Smith was a formidable actor with a biting wit and a fearsome ability to deliver lines

It is a testament to the power of the late British actress Dame Maggie Smith that other eminent actors – though only male ones, as far as I can see – accused her of upstaging them.

The Conversation · Sep 30, 2024

Dame Maggie Smith obituary

A distinguished, double Oscar-winning actor whose roles ranged from Shakespeare to Harry Potter

The Guardian - UK · Sep 27, 2024

Maggie Smith: the magisterial star of Harry Potter and Downton had the courage and talent to do absolutely everything

The real-life dame and on-screen dowager countess, who has died aged 89, earned fame in her 70s and 80s for blockbuster roles. But her early work at the National Theatre marked her out as a talent for the ages

The Guardian - UK · Sep 27, 2024

Dame Maggie Smith: Oscar-winning Harry Potter and Downton Abbey star dies, aged 89

Giant of stage and screen was one of Britain’s most successul stars

The Independent UK · Sep 27, 2024

Maggie Smith, Oscar-winning star of stage and screen, dies aged 89

In a career that began in the 1950s, her roles ranged from Desdemona to Miss Jean Brodie, Virginia Woolf and Minerva McGonagall

The Guardian - UK · Sep 27, 2024