Getting On

Bennett, Alan

£13.25

A British Labour M.P., ten years into his second marriage, feels tethered in a time of change. He is distrustful on the one hand of the ‘mawkish mentality’ of the young and, on the other, of the encroaching life of the middle aged who can look forward to nothing more than the fairly imminent end of a not so very interesting road.

Out of stock

Publish Date: 07/06/2018

Description

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast production of one of the earliest plays by Alan Bennett

The 1970s are a time of change, but Labour MP George Oliver feels stuck in one place: distrusting the ‘mawkish mentality’ of the young and fearing the encroaching life of the middle-aged, with little to look forward to but the imminent end of a not-very-interesting road.

Ten years into his second marriage, he is world-weary and dissatisfied with his social position and the public he deals with on a regular basis (‘He’s a socialist, but he doesn’t like people’ observes his wife Polly). In his self-absorption, he cannot see that his wife is having an affair, his mother-in-law is dying and his friends and neighbours regard him as a joke. With his trademark wry observational humour, Alan Bennett renders his plight at once poignant and comic.

This bittersweet drama won the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy of 1971, and was described by the Sunday Times as ‘a small jewel of bewilderment and regret’. Keith Barron stars as George in this radio adaptation, with a supporting cast including David Rintoul, Emily Richard and Margaret Courtenay.

Duration approx 1 hour 45 minutes

Additional information

Weight 106 g
Dimensions 142 × 124 × 10 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback

Pages
Language

English

Edition

Unabridged edition

Dewey

822.92 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K