Get on yer blog Alan
Sunday, January 02, 2005
The first LRB of the new year contains its customary extracts from Alan Bennett's diary. I read it after watching the TV drama about the relationship between Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Bennet, of course, plays his part in the Beyond the Fringe years. As does Jonathan Miller, whose character came off rather badly in the drama. The focus was on Cook and Moore so Bennett was portrayed as a one-dimensional wimp and Miller as a one-dimensional pretentious git but the drama as a whole was excellent and Rhys Ifans as Cook was superb, capturing not only the look and verbal delivery but also, somehow, Cook's particular sort of silences and wordless cruelty.
Anyway, the Bennett of the diary comes across rather as the drama portrayed him. Not one-dimensional, perhaps, but certainly a man of studied inaction. The diary entries are short and, for the most part, inconsequential but well-written. They would make perfect blog entries, really. Perhaps I should send him an email and suggest he starts blogging for this year.
Anyway, the Bennett of the diary comes across rather as the drama portrayed him. Not one-dimensional, perhaps, but certainly a man of studied inaction. The diary entries are short and, for the most part, inconsequential but well-written. They would make perfect blog entries, really. Perhaps I should send him an email and suggest he starts blogging for this year.
