TWO national treasures: last Friday, BBC2 broadcast Alan Bennett: 90 years on, and, on Saturday, ITV1 presented Dame Maggie Smith: A celebration. These two biographies — hers in memoriam, while Bennett, for all his nonagenarian protestations, is very much alive — made a fascinating combination. Their stories intersected again and again, as, between them, they defined a remarkable long era in British drama, stage, film, and TV: tragi-comical rather than pure comedy.
In The Lady in the Van, Dame Maggie recreated a long-extended episode in Bennett’s real life, as, over an interminable 15 years, he gave to the entirely impossible Miss Shepherd what can only — despite abandoning his faith decades ago — be described as truly Christian hospitality. Most searingly for us, in his Talking Heads monologue Bed Among the Lentils, Dame Maggie decisively skewered traumatic marriage to a superficial, passionless, non-relating Vicar, adored by his blinkered flock but driving her to drink and adultery.
Dame Maggie’s own tragedy is that, such is the relentless populism of our times, media seem capable only of defining this remarkable actor of huge range by referring to the single-dimensional crowd-pulling worlds of Harry Potter and Downton Abbey. Bennett’s consistent themes were far better served: his overwhelming nostalgia tempered with savage moral indignation; his specifically Yorkshire pessimism; his self-deprecation; his daring us to take him seriously when, within all the humour, he is indeed deadly serious, all the while refusing to take himself seriously.
He returns constantly to exploring patriotism: how can profound love for England properly be celebrated while acknowledging all our crimes and failures? The final scenes showed last summer’s vile anti-immigration riots, the thugs draped in St George’s flags — no easy happy ending here.
So, farewell then. Our new editor has determined that 30 years is quite long enough for anyone to hog a column (especially when constantly repeating the same opinions and feeble jokes); so, this is my final TV review. It has been a great privilege watching television on behalf of the Church of England, so that the rest of you don’t have to — especially over these decades in which genuine religious TV broadcasting has diminished practically to zero.
I have, however, thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of finding theological and faith-related truths and canards hither and yon, especially in the least expected and most surprising programmes. I won’t miss the pre-deadline panic when there’s nothing whatsoever to write about, and my family will greatly value being able to watch TV for their entertainment rather than for my serious employment, thereby being enjoined to absolute silence lest I miss the one crucial quote of the week.
It has been a splendid discipline; I now retire into encroaching senescence. Happy viewing!