Wednesday evening at the Riverside to catch the documentary on Alan Bennett, based on the year leading up to the publication of his latest diaries (“Keeping O Keeping On“). The film seems typically Bennett (or at least as I imagine him to be), a writer who seems as bemused as ever by his own popularity and is still as irreverent in his 80s as he was in his 20s. Amongst other things, Bennett speaks about his relationship with his partner of 23 years, Rupert Thomas, and, surprisingly, reveals that he’s always wanted to keep a donkey. Leafing through private photographs he reflects on his modest beginnings and his enduring gratitude to (and support for) a Welfare State that paid for his education and looked after his parents in their old age. The film was followed by a live Q&A from his local library in Primrose Hill. As always, he’s quiet, thoughtful and understated, but he still carries the humour, humility, insight and indeed anger that his writings have displayed for the last 50 or so years. Not ground breaking, but a comforting and pleasant evening spent with a very talented and self deprecating writer.
