Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads - Commencing June 23rd, BBC One

I believe Alan Bennett has refused any honours

Rufus2

^It’s a rare thing for a man to ‘get’ the way women speak ( especially older women)^
Lemongrove Problem is I'm now finding it hard to "get older women" , speaking or not! Btw; I'm also an "Alan"!
OoRoo

You’ll have to try and get younger women then Rufus ?

grumppa

Met Alan Bennett in a friend’s flat about fifty years ago. Very quiet and hardly joining in the conversation, until he came out with a devastating one-liner that had us in fits.

How casually you threw that out, grumppa !

A memory to treasure, surely?

Conversation had turned to a new medical practice of getting patients used to managing without various bits before the actual operation (try this crutch for size sort of thing), and that mild singalong voice piped up, "Now today we're going to practise managing without our appendix."

Watching this now, what a load of old tosh! I can't bear it. DH is engrossed though. Will have to leave the room!

The Sarah Lancashire one made me feel very uncomfortable.

Just watched the Imelda Staunton one. She is such a brilliant actress. Absolutely riveting.

Agree, Pittcity. I loved the Imelda Staunton one though.

The Lady of Letters character seems to be angrier and more bitter than the original character as played by Patricia Routledge but I enjoyed it very much.
An Ordinary Woman, with Sarah Lancashire, was both repellent and riveting; her acting was astounding in that she made me feel both repulsed by her feelings for her son and yet compassionate for the torture she was in because of those feelings.

I thought that they were both brilliantly done.

Lady of Letters was so sad

Oh dear, I was so looking forward to Imelda Staunton's version as she is a great actress but her version of A Lady of Letters seemed very flat to me. Patricia Routledge's lady had so much more light and shade. From being irritated by her initial nosiness, pomposity and lack of self-awareness , by the end I felt so sorry for her.

Sarah Lancashire was brilliant but I don't remember the original. It was rather a strange subject and uncomfortable subject. I haven't heard of mothers being sexually attracted to their sons or, as she said, "in love" but SL was, in my opinion, certainly very convincing in the part.

I couldn't see the Thora Hird cream cracker under the settee one listed. That was probably the one that struck me the most - and Alan Bennett's one about his monstrous mother.

I sometimes wonder if Alan Bennett based these characters on people he had come across in real life or if he just has immense creativity and imagination.

I read that the Cream Cracker one isn’t going to be redone because it was so popular and you can’t improve on perfection.

I must be honest, I don’t really remember any of the series, although I watched them at the time. The first one tonight I thought was good. The second made me very uncomfortable but perhaps that was the point.

The Sarah Lancashire episode was one, of two, new stories that AH has recently written and so they were never in the original series.

I loved A Lady of Letters but didn't quite feel the one with Sarah.

I loved Imelda Staunton. She looked right apart from anything else. The story was as fresh as if it was written for her.
The Sarah Lancashire one was most odd. Maybe it reflects more of the author's inclinations than those of real women? I can't even imagine a Mum fancying her own son. She acted it very well though. Raquel's come a long way!

An Ordinary Woman, was reversely based on Freud’s theory of Oedipus Complex. He believed it was a stage of development where a child has sexual feelings for the parent of the opposite gender.
I did find it rather uncomfortable viewing, but then that was the point. Sarah Lancashire is very talented.

I thought Imelda Staunton was brilliant. What an actress! Her face is so expressive.

I haven't watched the Sarah Lancashire one yet.

I thought Imelda Staunton was brilliant I watched her in the film Finding your Feet last week and she is so talented. She's played such a range of characters (her Vera Drake was great) isn't it time she had an honour?
Sarah Lancashire's was very disturbing. It revealed many layers of a dysfunctional family. She was very good.

Yes, trisher, Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake was so moving. It really is time she had an honour.

I appreciated Sarah Lancashire’s one more than Imelda Staunton’s. It did seem a bit dated whereas Sarah’s story was new, if a bit weird.

I also felt disturbed watching SL. An uncomfortable subject.
SL as always was excellent.

As Jane says, Raquel has come a long way!

I do know about Oedipus Complex! However, 'An ordinary woman' was not ordinary. It was creepy and, basically, a confrontation with a taboo subject. Mothers just don't fancy their sons or, at least, not ordinary ones!

I wish the two talking heads hadn't been on one after another.

I am disappointed that the Cream Cracker one is not being included. Maggie Smith or Sheila Hancock would be excellent.

I never saw the first lot, so was looking forward to the much advertised second go.
i was very disappointed. they felt dated and frankly the Sarah Lancashire one was far, far too long and deeply uncomfortable. AB had written two others some time ago, and forgotten about them, this one being one of them.
I'm not sure I shall watch the other 10.