James Delingpole James Delingpole

Pure poison: BBC1’s Talking Heads reviewed

Alan Bennett despises his characters and the Englishness they embody

Sarah Lancashire as the creepy Yorkshire mum in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads. Image credit: BBC/London Theatre Company/Zac Nicholson 
issue 27 June 2020

The big mistake people make with Alan Bennett is to conflate him with his fellow Yorkshireman David Hockney. But whereas Hockney’s art is generous, warm, bright, life-affirming, Bennett’s is crabbed, catty, dingy, insinuating. The fact that the BBC-led establishment keeps telling us he’s a National Treasure tells us more about the BBC-led establishment than it does about Bennett.

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