The Latest Breaking News from Alan Bennett

Adrian Scarborough stars in his own adaptation of Bennett’s story, featuring convincing new dialogue and staged with visual panache

“I could see she was a good card to have in my hand,” director Stephen Frears told me when I interviewed him about The Queen, his 2006 film starring Helen Mirren as the monarch, adjusting to the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death. Yet neither he nor the movie’s writer Peter…

Making his fringe debut with a show about a troubled standup, the actor explains why he loves solo performance, his issues with The History Boys, and why this government’s days are numbered

After two years of pandemic programming, with performers and audiences moved into virtual online venues, the Edinburgh International Festival celebrates its 75th anniversary this year with the best possible birthday present – the return of a full programme of live performances.

Other lives: Actor and writer whose plays were broadcast on BBC radio and staged around the world

From Jerusalem and Pretty Woman to a 70s Alan Bennett farce, unreconstructed attitudes and old-fashioned smut still permeate British theatre. And irony is not much of a defence

He was the first war artist to die on active service – and one of the greatest. Now, a new film, featuring Alan Bennett and Ai Weiwei, uncovers his complicated life

The official combat painter died in 1942 when his plane went down. Now his inspiring life story is the subject of a major documentary

She has appeared in plays, novels, paintings – even love songs. From Andy Warhol to Alan Bennett, artists, writers and musicians have changed our picture of the Queen we think we know