Screenwriters Alan Bennet

Alan Bennet

 81 year old Alan Bennet has been a professional playwright and screenwriter for a number of years. He has written many television series and films for the BBC including Beyond the Fringe, An Englishman Abroad, Lady in a Van and Sunset Across the Bay. 


Sunset Across the Bay was Alan Bennet's second televised play on the BBC and was the first of a very "long line of Bennet Plays about concerns of the elderly" (Screenonline.org.uk). This show is relevant to my project and learning because of the unexpected death that happens to the protagonist in Sunset Across the Bay. It is a very similar circumstance to what happens in my film of Jimmy's War. Understanding how Bennet portrayed the other characters loss in Sunset Across the Bay was significant to helping me understand the importance of using the characters in the story to provide the emotional impact needed to create the drama for the audience. 
Dad and Mam
Sunset Across the Bay

From this I will ensure that during my script re-write that Rylee signifies something about Jimmy's death that provokes emotion in the audience. Whether this is similar to Bennet's character Mam in taking the same walk that her husband took after his death or for Rylee, sitting in the chair next to Jimmy's. However with this, the audience needs to see a change in the character which is what I shall need to think about when doing my re-write. 

 Another example of a Bennet play that is relatable to my project is Say Something Happened. The plot line is "An inexperienced social worker is sent to interview an elderly couple deemed to be "at risk", but ends up learning just as much about herself" (IMDB). This is similar to my character's situation as Rylee isn't experienced in caring for the elderly - or anything at all really, and by the end of the film, he grows as a person to become more considerate towards others which for him, is a big change in his personality. I guess you could say this is similar to the social worker in Say Something Happened as she too appears to have learnt something about herself that she didn't know before. I hope to be able to make this change in Rylee's character noticeable to the audience without making it too unrealistic or diverting too far away from the character's original personality.
Say Something Happened

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