Talking Heads/Talking Heads 2 – Nostalgia Central

1 9 8 8 (UK)
6 x 30 minute episodes
1 9 9 8 (UK)
6 x 30 minute episodes

This series of monologues by Alan Bennett was inspired by his 1982 play A Woman of No Importance.

Featuring Maggie Smith, Julie Walters, Thora Hird and Bennett himself, each play focused on a character who faced the camera and told his or her own story.

The first episode – ‘A Chip in the Sugar’ – aired on 19 April 1988, with Alan Bennett himself as middle-aged and mild-mannered Graham Whittaker (who we learn is a repressed homosexual with a history of mild mental health problems), who finds life becoming more complicated as his mother, (with whom he still lives), reunites with an old flame named Frank Turnbull.

But Mr Turnbull is hiding a secret, and when Graham finds out, he triumphantly confronts his mother with the information, restoring the status quo and his comfortable life but destroying her hopes of happiness in the process.

‘Her Big Chance’ introduced an aspiring actress named Lesley (Julie Walters), who, after a series of unpromising extra roles on television programmes such as Crossroads, finds what she believes to be her big break in a new film for the West German market. Although it is not clear to Lesley, she is appearing in a soft pornographic film.

The episode ‘A Cream Cracker Under the Settee’ was especially praised by critics. In this episode, it became apparent that 75-year-old Doris (Thora Hird) may have been responsible for her husband’s early death by her constant nagging.

Alone and injured, she wondered whether the only place left for her in society was a care home, which she distrusted. Resisting this with all her being, she decided she’d rather die on her own in considerable pain than live in a care home “smelling of pee”.

The other three episodes starred Patricia Routledge, Maggie Smith and Stephanie Cole.

The series was also adapted for radio and stage, and became a set text in English examinations. The success of the series also inspired the Single Voices series, which followed in 1990, with six different authors contributing monologues.

A second series of Talking Heads (aired as Talking Heads 2) was produced in 1998, with six more monologues from Bennett, debuting with Patricia Routledge as a spinster about to get a taste of life in ‘Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet’.

The other monologues starred Eileen Atkins, David Haig, Julie Walters, Penelope Wilton and Thora Hird. The episodes had their merits, but they were not as memorable as the first six – admittedly a tough act to follow!

Filmed on abandoned EastEnders sets during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the BBC revived 10 of the original monologues (with different actors) and produced two new episodes written by Bennett in 2019.

The new episodes were ‘An Ordinary Woman’ starring Sarah Lancashire and ‘The Shrine’ with Monica Dolan. The remakes starred Imelda Staunton, Harriet Walter, Jodie Comer, Lucian Msamati, Martin Freeman, Rochenda Sandall, Lesley Manville, Tamsin Greig, Kristin Scott Thomas and Maxine Peake.

Episodes

A Chip in the Sugar | A Lady of Letters | Bed Among the Lentils | Soldiering On | Her Big Chance | A Cream Cracker Under the Settee || Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet | The Hand of God | Playing Sandwiches | The Outside Dog | Nights in the Gardens of Spain | Waiting for the Telegram