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The BBC has started filming a new series of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues. The series, which was first shown on the BBC in 1988 and 1998, will include new versions of 10 of the original monologues, along with two new ones that Bennett wrote last year.
The new series will feature some of the biggest British television stars, including Jodie Comer, Maxine Peake, and Sarah Lancashire.
“In such difficult circumstances that the BBC should choose to reassemble both Talking Heads series and produce two entirely new ones, it is a consolation and a great compliment,” said Bennett. “I hope that a new generation of actors will get and give as much pleasure as we did 20 and 30 years ago.”
The new series will be produced by Nicholas Hytner and Kevin Loader, and the press release says they will be shown “in the coming months.” Filming is already taking place at Elstree Studios, with the production team “following the latest government guidelines on Covid-19 to ensure the series is conducted safely and responsibly.”
“Covid-19 has wiped out dramatic production in the UK,” says BBC drama controller Piers Wenger, “but it has also posed a challenge: how do we adhere to the restrictions and at the same time provide the British viewers a chance to lose themselves? in great stories at this time of national need?
“Filled with insight, wit, boldness, and compassion, these are stories of individual lives, but of great resonance. I am very grateful to Alan, Nicholas Hytner, Kevin Loader and the entire team for the caution, ingenuity and wisdom they have shown in bringing these stories to the screen. “
When the monologues were first shown, they won two Baftas and an RTS award, and have since been a staple of the English Literature program at A-level and GCSE.
“Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads are among the masterpieces of one of the greatest writers in the history of television, film and theater,” says Hytner, longtime collaborator of Bennett and the director and lead producer of the project. “It has been a deep and fascinating experience to find a way to do them again.
“It is a great advantage that two of the Talking Heads 2020 are brand new, written shortly before the current crisis began. And everyone involved has been working in an unprecedented way, rigorously observing social distancing, completely rethinking the ways of making movies that until a few weeks ago seemed routine.
“Filming will never bring any of us closer, but I hope it will reach millions of viewers in any other way.”
The monologues that will air on BBC One in the coming months are:
• Jodie Comer at Her Big Chance (1988), directed by Josie Rourke
• Monica Dolan in The Shrine (2019), directed by Nicholas Hytner
• Martin Freeman in A Chip in the Sugar (1988), directed by Jeremy Herrin
• Tamsin Greig in Nights in the Garden of Spain (1998), directed by Marianne Elliott
• Sarah Lancashire in An Ordinary Woman (2019), directed by Nicholas Hytner
• Lesley Manville in The Bed Among the Lentils (1988), directed by Nicholas Hytner
• Lucian Msamati in Playing Sandwiches (1998), directed by Jeremy Herrin
• Maxine Peake in Miss Fozzard Find Her Her Feet (1988), directed by Sarah Frankcom
• Rochenda Sandall in The Outside Dog (1998), directed by Nadia Fall
• Kristin Scott Thomas in The Hand of God (1998), directed by Jonathan Kent
• Imelda Staunton in A Lady of Letters (1988), directed by Jonathan Kent
• Harriet Walter in Soldiering On (1988), directed by Marianne Elliott
