BBC Radio 4 Extra

Alan Bennett - The History Boys

Drama

31/12/2006

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Alan Bennett - The History Boys

The tussles of staffroom rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence.

The tussles of staffroom rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence. Nicholas Hytner's National Theatre cast with Richard Griffiths.

Radio 4 Extra celebrates the 75th birthday of Rising Damp actress Frances de la Tour, with her appearance in Alan Bennett's celebrated play.  

This radio adaptation features the original National Theatre cast, with Richard Griffiths,, James Corden and Russell Tovey.

Set in the 1980s in the fictional Cutlers' Grammar School in Sheffield, it follows a group of history pupils preparing for the Oxbridge entrance exams under the guidance of three contrasting teachers and a headmaster with ambitions to move the school up the academic league table.  

Frances de la Tour played the role of Mrs Dorothy Lintott on both the London and Broadway stage, winning a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2006. As well as this radio version, she reprised the role in the 2006 film. Nicknamed Totty by the boys, her character is not respected by the male teachers as being good enough to get them into Oxbridge.  But the audience gets to see how perceptive she can be....

The History Boys first opened at London’s National Theatre in May 2004 directed by Sir Nicholas Hytner

Headmaster    ......    Clive Merrison 
Mrs Lintott    ......    Frances de la Tour 
Hector    ......    Richard Griffiths
Timms    ......    James Corden
Rudge    ......    Russell Tovey
Lockwood    ......    Andrew Knott
Dakin    ......    Dominic Cooper
Akthar    ......    Sacha Dhawan
Scripps    ......    Jamie Parker
Crowther    ......    Samuel Anderson
Irwin    ......    Geoffrey Streatfeild
Posner    ......    Samuel Barnett 

Adapted for radio by Richard Wortley.  

Solo singer: Samuel Barnett

Pianists: Jamie Parker and Tom Attwood 

Producer David Hunter

Director Richard Wortley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2006.

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