Deborah Ross

Made me laugh for all the wrong reasons: Allelujah reviewed

If you’re going to do Alan Bennett, don’t meddle with Alan Bennett

Judi Dench as May and Bally Gill as Dr Valentine, who appears to be the only doctor in the hospital. Credit: © Pathé Productions Limited and British Broadcasting Corporation 2022  
issue 18 March 2023
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  • Allelujah

    12A, Nationwide

Allelujah, based on the stage play by Alan Bennett, is set in a geriatric ward in a Yorkshire hospital and has a stellar cast: Jennifer Saunders, Derek Jacobi, David Bradley, Julia McKenzie, Lorraine Ashbourne, Dame Judi Dench – but not Dame Maggie Smith, inexplicably. Maybe she missed the call. It’s directed by Richard Eyre and produced by Nicholas Hytner, among others, so it has all the credentials you could wish for and yet, and yet, and yet.

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