Rare treat as Alan Bennett becomes a talking head

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.

During a 50-year career spanning television, film, stage and radio, Bennett has credits including An Englishman Abroad, Me – I'm Afraid of

Virginia Woolf and The Old Country.

His screenplay The Madness of King George was nominated for an Oscar.

His work also includes Talking Heads, a series of monologues recorded by the BBC in the late 1980s, and The History Boys, which premiered in 2004 and saw the original stage cast reunited for the film adaptation in 2006.

Bennett was granted the freedom of the city of Leeds in 2006 when he told a civic ceremony: "I am moved and humbled and touched by this honour, but I think I was given the freedom of the city more than 50 years ago. I was given a free education that set me up for life."

The History Boys is at the Playhouse until March 6. Tickets from www.wyp.org.uk or 0113 213 7700.