A Masterclass in acting

I have always loved the work of Alan Bennett. His wry,understated view of the lives of the invisible middle classes can be wonderfully observant essays on lost loves,lost opportunities and small inconsequential lives.
His first Talking Heads set of monologues had huge critical and public acclaim in 1987, yet strangely I missed his lesser known Talking Heads 2 follow up, which aired on BBC1 in 1998.
Chris downloaded the second series onto his IPod this weekend, and today I had a chance to listen (and really listen) to a few of them when I was walking the dogs this afternoon.

Talking Heads 2 seems to be a little "darker" than the first series. True the recurrent themes of loneliness, self delusion and Northern humour are all still there, but there seems to be more melancholy around each essay then we saw in the first set..

Standouts for me must be the gentle story of abuse and unrequited love by the delightful Penelope Wilton and the masterclass of understatement by Thora Hird, who plays a feisty 90 year old struggling with confusion, her guilty memories and life within an average Nursing home.
This monologue is at times bitingly funny and also excruciatingly moving. Hird, (who sounds and acts like the female version of Bennett himself) couldn't be better; she lives the words she has been given and makes you scream with laughter seconds after she reduces you the listener to tears.
Amazing.....Amazing experience