Britain says "Happy Birthday" to an old playwright called Alan Bennett and "Thank You" for his new 'Talking Heads'

Alan, who is 86 years old today, has the pleasure of knowing that the BBC has started filming a new series of his 'Talking Heads' monologues. The series, which was first shown on the BBC in 1988, when Alan was 54 and ten years later in 1998, will include remakes of 10 of the original monologues, alongside two new ones which he wrote last year.

The new series will feature some of the biggest British  stars, including Jodie Comer, Maxine Peake and Sarah Lancashire.

Alan said : “In such difficult circumstances, that the BBC should choose to remount both series of Talking Heads, and produce two entirely new ones, is a comfort and a huge compliment. I hope a new generation of actors will get and give as much pleasure as we did twenty and thirty years ago.”

When the monologues were first shown, they won two Baftas and an RTS award and have since been a staple of the English Literature syllabus in schools at A-level and GCSE.

Producer, Nicholas Hytner said : “Alan Bennett’s 'Talking Heads' are among the masterworks of one of the very greatest writers in TV, film and theatre history. It has been a profound and fascinating experience to work out a way of making them again. It is a wonderful bonus that two of the 2020 'Talking Heads' are totally new, written only a short time before the current crisis began and everyone involved has been working in an unprecedented way, rigorously observing social distancing, entirely rethinking ways of filmmaking that until a few weeks ago seemed routine. The shoot will never bring any of us within touching distance of each other, but I hope that in every other way it will reach out and touch millions of viewers.”

The monologues which will air on BBC One in the coming months will feature :

• Jodie Comer in 'Her Big Chance', played, originally, by Julie Walters as Lesley, an aspiring actress, who, after a series of unpromising extra roles in tv programmes such as 'Crossroads', finds, what she believes, to be her big break as the adventurous 'Travis' in a new film for the West German market. It is not clear to what extent Lesley understands that she is appearing in a soft pornographic film.

• Martin Freeman will play in 'A Chip in the Sugar' played by Alan himself in 1988 as the mild, middle-aged Graham Whittaker, a repressed homosexual with a history of mild mental health problems who finds life becoming complicated as his mother, with whom he still lives, reunites with an old flame named Frank Turnbull.

• Tamsin Greig plays in 'Nights in the Garden of Spain' where Penelope Wilton played Rosemary Horrocks, a lonely woman who takes it upon herself to tend to a female neighbour's garden after the latter is arrested for murdering her abusive husband. The two women become close friends in a tender relationship which has the potential to bring both of them real happiness but, unfortunately, the  neighbour dies of cancer before the potential of their friendship can be fully realised.

• Lesley Manville plays in 'Bed Among the Lentils' where Maggie Smith played Susan, the wife of a vicar, living in a small village near Leeds, where her husband is a popular local figure, well respected and he also seems to collect adoring middle aged and elderly women. Susan is bored with her husband and unhappy with her life, although she is passive in this unhappiness other than her alcoholism.

• Lucian Msamati plays in 'Playing Sandwiches' in which David Haig played Wilfred Paterson who we discover over time, a reformed paedophile living under a false identity and working as a much-praised maintenance man in a public park. However, he resumes his old ways with horrifying results and incarcerated, contemplates his condition, remarking "It's the one part of my life that feels right... and that's the bit that's wrong."

• Maxine Peake plays in 'Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet' in which Patricia Routledge played as a lonely, middle-aged department store clerk in Soft Furnishings who, when she retires, starts a relationship with her new podiatrist and ventures into benign prostitution as she allows him to pay her to model a variety of footwear whilst also indulging in other activities.

• Rochenda Sandall plays in 'The Outside Dog' where Julie Walters played Marjory, a clean freak who gradually comes to realise that her husband, Stuart, who works in a slaughterhouse, is using his employment to cover the fact that he's a particularly dangerous criminal.

• Kristin Scott Thomas plays in 'The Hand of God' where Eileen Atkins played Celia, a covetous antiques dealer who brazenly helps elderly neighbours for the sole purpose of being in a good position to buy their treasures on the cheap when they die. One of the items she gains turns out to be a Michaelangelo's study of the central image of the Hand of God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel which she unknowingly sells and is picked up by the buyer, who says on national television he bought in a "junk shop."

• Imelda Staunton plays in 'A Lady of Letters' where Patricia Routledge played Irene Ruddock, a working class single woman living near Bradford who is not afraid to speak, or rather write, her mind who writes letters to her MP, the police, the chemist – everyone she can, to remedy the social ills she sees around her. However, after one too many accusations of misconduct from her pen, she is sent to prison – where, for the first time in her life, she feels free and happy.

• Harriet Walter plays in 'Soldiering On' played by Stephanie Cole as Muriel, a strong woman, pillar of the community, regular charity worker, volunteer for 'Meals on Wheels' and carer of her mentally ill daughter, Margaret. However, her husband's death, her son's ineptitude or dishonesty with money and the vile secret behind Margaret's illness, Muriel finds that she needs to adapt in order to "soldier on."

In the new episodes Sarah Lancashire plays in 'An Ordinary Woman' and Monica Dolan in 'The Shrine'.