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  • The Complete Talking Heads

  • The Classic BBC Radio 4 Monologues Plus A Woman of No Importance
  • By: Alan Bennett
  • Narrated by: Alan Bennett, Patricia Routledge
  • Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (12 ratings)

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The Complete Talking Heads

By: Alan Bennett
Narrated by: Alan Bennett, Patricia Routledge
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Publisher's Summary

The complete audio collection of Alan Bennett's celebrated monologues, published together for the first time and performed by some of Britain's best actors.

The Talking Heads monologues are widely regarded as one of Alan Bennett's finest dramatic achievements. First broadcast on BBC TV and BBC Radio 4 in the 1980s and 1990s, they won a host of awards and huge popular acclaim and remain among his most admired works today.

This collection includes all twelve Talking Heads, plus the precursor of that series, 'A Woman of No Importance'.

Beautifully crafted and full of compassion and wry observation, each tale is ripe with the quirky, insightful detail that has become Bennett's trademark. The monologues are: 'A Woman of No Importance' (Patricia Routledge); 'A Chip in the Sugar' (Alan Bennett); 'A Lady of Letters' (Patricia Routledge); 'Bed Among the Lentils' (Anna Massey); 'Soldiering On' (Stephanie Cole); 'Her Big Chance' (Julie Walters); 'A Cream Cracker Under the Settee' (ThoraHird); 'Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet' (Patricia Routledge); 'The Hand of God' (Eileen Atkins); 'Playing Sandwiches' (David Haig); 'The Outside Dog' (Julie Walters); 'Nights in the Gardens of Spain' (Penelope Wilton) and 'Waiting for the Telegram' (Thora Hird).

Intensely moving, deeply engrossing and highly entertaining, these spellbinding soliloquies are essential listening.

©2015 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2015 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
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Brilliant

I loved this audiobook. Each chapter was beautifully read. I didn't want it to end.

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First rate stuff

Alan Bennett is a writer whose talents are diverse in form but not in content. Some of these monologues explore ideas and characters quite similar to those in other ones (and in his other works) but always with such empathy and artistry that I never really mind. Read by some of the best British actors, each performance is word-perfect. Highlights are Anna Massey in Bed Among Lentils, Thora Hird in Waiting for the Telegram, and Bennett himself in A Chip in the Sugar.

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