Rare treat as Alan Bennett becomes a talking head

ONE of Leeds's favourite sons was back in his home city yesterday, where he paid a visit to his on-stage classroom.

Playwright Alan Bennett was at the West Yorkshire Playhouse as The History Boys begins a run at the theatre.

He hosted An Audience with Alan Bennett, during which he read from a selection of his work and answered the audience's questions.

The History Boys – his portrayal of a group of northern grammar school boys studying for Oxbridge entrance exams – was proclaimed as "madly enjoyable" by the New York Times when it opened on Broadway.

Famous for his self-effacing stories, it was a rare public appearance for the butcher's son from Armley.

Bennett attended the former Leeds Modern School, now Lawnswood School, and graduated from Oxford in 1960 with a First Class honours degree in history.

The dramatist first rose to fame in 1960 along with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller in Beyond the Fringe, a comedy revue credited with revolutionising British satire.