Talking Heads (series)

Talking Heads (1988) and Talking Heads 2 (1998) are two series of six half-hour monologues by British playwright Alan Bennett. There are two slightly different versions of each one, radio and televison.

Some surprisingly dark subject matter, especially in series two which includes a paedophile falling off the wagon, a serial killer who gets away with it and a non-con BDSM club whose victim finally snaps and shoots her abusive husband.


 * Better to Die Than Be Killed: Doris, who chooses not to alert a visitor to the fact that she has fallen and is badly hurt, evidently preferring this to an undignfied existence in a nursing home which, she fears, would probably kill her anyway.
 * Bury Your Gays: Francis the nurse dies of HIV related pneumonia. The possibly lesbian Fran dies too. Graham and Rosemary survive but then, they're narrating characters.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Lesley.
 * Darker and Edgier: Series Two.
 * Death of the Author: After the monologues were put on the A-Level syllabus Alan Bennett received letters from students asking what he meant by certain things. He responded that their ideas were as good as his, and that they should treat him like a dead author who was thus unavailable for comment.
 * Disposable Sex Worker: Stuart's victims.
 * During the War: Violet’s clearest recollections.
 * Gold Digger: Celia. And then there's Mallory Malloy.
 * Innocent Inaccurate: Possibly Lesley, who may or not realise that she is starring in porn.
 * Muriel in Soldiering On, who naively doesn't understand her son's mismanagement of her money until it is too late.
 * Last-Name Basis: Miss Fozzard’s first name is never mentioned.
 * Les Yay: Rosemary and Fran. Probably.
 * Oop North: Most (but not all) episodes.
 * The Other Darrin: Susan is played by Dame Maggie Smith in the TV version, in the radio version she's played by Anna Massey although the other five actors reprised their roles.
 * Porn Stash: Graham has one and doesn't know his mother knows about it.
 * Really Gets Around: Lesley. Oddly, she doesn’t seem to realise it.
 * Rule of Symbolism: The windows of the house in Marbella look more like the kind you would see in a prison.
 * Shout-Out: Lesley’s cheap European soft-porn film is obviously a cheap European rip-off of the James Bond film Thunderball.
 * Sympathy for the Devil: Wilfred.
 * Unreliable Narrator: The characters often don’t see what the audience does.
 * Wham! Line: At least one per episode.