Biography

Born in Leeds and educated at Oxford University, Alan Bennett's first forays into the comedy world began with shows with the Oxford Revue. Here he collaborated as writer and performer with fellow comedians Jonathan Miller, Peter Cook, and Dudley Moore in the satirical revue Beyond The Fringe. Together they rose to fame after appearing at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival, and triumphed to such an extent that they travelled to London and New York. The show was the first of its kind to bring together the highlights from the Cambridge Footlights and The Oxford Revue, both of which had appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe in recent years in their own shows, and premiered to enormous success. Beyond The Fringe is widely regarded as instrumental to the 'satire boom' in 1960s Britain.

In 1965 Bennett appeared in the one-off BBC satire written by John Bird] entitled My Father Knew Lloyd George, set in Victorian England and based on the antics of a young aristocrat.

After teaching and researching medieval history for a number of years after graduation from Oxford, Bennett abandoned academia in favour of playwriting. His first stage play Forty Years On was produced in 1968 and adapted into aBBC Radio 4 play in 2000. Later work includes The Madness of King George III and The History Boys, both of which were adapted into successful films (in 1994 and 2006 respectively).



One of Bennett's most successful works is The Lady In The Van, based on his encounters with an eccentric woman called Miss Shepherd who lived on Bennett's driveway in a wide range of dilapidated vans, over more than fifteen years. First published in 1989 as an essay in the London Review of Books, in 1999 Bennett adapted it into stage play, and in 2009 it was broadcast as a radio play on BBC Radio 4. It was adapted yet again in 2015 for a film of the same name, with Maggie Smith reprising the role of the titular lady that she had made her own in the radio version.

In 2014 Bennett wrote one episode of a BBC Radio 4 comedy drama entitled Denmark Hill, which transposed Shakespeare's Hamlet into a contemporary suburban setting.