Watching Mark Lawson's interview with Alan bennett on BBC4 last night, I was struck by a filmed extract from Bennett's stage play Forty Years On, with John Gielgud. Does anyone know if this was ever shown on television? Does anyone have a copy of it???
I am fairly certain that Forty Years On has never been done on TV but it has been done twice on BBC Radio.
The first time with the original West End cast of John Gielgud as the headmaster plus Alan Bennett as Tempest and Paul Edington as Franklin.
The second more recent production was was in August 2006, this time with Bennett playing the headmaster and Robert Bathurst as Franklin. I think that this latter version is available on BBC audiotapes.
Yes, you're quite right about the two radio adaptations - the first was originally broadcast on 11 August 1973 (Saturday Night Theatre) with John Gielgud, Alan Bennett, Paul Eddington and Nigel Rathbone, and repeated in August 1975 and December 1988); and the second was originally broadcast on 28 August 2000 (Afternoon Play), with Alan Bennett, Robert Batrhurst and Eleanor Bron (with music by Colin Sell, bless 'im!). Both are available on CD (the first one coupled with another Bennett play, A Woman of No Importance).
The Gielguid Forty Years On was available on BBC cassette in a double bill with A Woman of No Importance while the new version is still available on CD.
Having heard both versions I certainly prefer the Gielguid.
It does appear to be available on Amazon
[ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alan-Bennett-Double-Bill-Importance/dp/0563225580]Alan Bennett Double Bill: Starring Sir John Gielgud and Patricia Routledge: Forty Years On/A Woman of No Importance BBC Radio Collection: Amazon.co.uk: Alan Bennett: Books[/ame]
I seem to remember that Decca issued an LP of the original West End cast with Gielgud. Carl Davis was one of the schoolboys!
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