Alan Bennett: How Can You?

'The lies on the front page of the Mail are so vulgar and glaring. Occasionally people say they like my work and then I see they have a copy of the Mail, and you think, ‘Well, how can you?’'

Alan Bennett is profiled in The Guardian.

One wonders how Alan's Daily Mail-reading fans will cope with the news that one of your actual 'national treasures' is a big fan of Jeremy Corbyn?

This travels over rather familar terrain, though there are some new insights into his not coming out ('I didn’t want to be in anybody’s pocket, that’s why I didn’t want to be thought to be gay, particularly. Pigeonholed. And then as you get older it just ceases to matter.'), and Rupert Thomas ('his partner of 23 years'); 'I’m chary of saying to people that I’m very happy or even that I’m happy. You tell people that you’re happy and they are bored by that. But we are.'

Apparently, he's got a new film coming out soon.

Peter Tatchell: A National Treasure?

"It's a rare day indeed when we find ourselves in agreement with the Daily Mail, but we did so in the case of Peter Tatchell. Last year, having spent years vilifying the human rights activist and all his works, the paper conceded that he was more good than bad and labelled him, for sheer staying power if nothing else, a national treasure. We agree. Most agree. And thus there was widespread surprise to see that there was no mention at all of Tatchell on the Independent on Sunday's Pink List 2011. It is, after all, a list of the "101 most influential gay and lesbian people in Britain today". A strange omission. True, there was no place for Brian Paddick, or the author Sarah Waters, but with Tatchell having claimed seventh place last year, his absence took some explaining. And so we asked around, not least because he was none the wiser, and we discovered that a deliberate decision was taken by the judges to leave him off the list. Instead he was to be given the accolade – along with Stephen Fry and Sandi Toksvig – of "national treasure". But then something went wrong, something distinctly low-tech; the Post-it note with his name was shuffled into an incorrect pile and nobody noticed until it was too late. Oh well. "I am not much fussed," Tatchell says, when we explain. "These lists are fairly arbitrary, and I am glad for those unsung gay people who have been recognised." And, unlike them, he has that glowing accolade from the Mail."

Hugh Muir's Diary, The Guardian.

The Daily Mail calling Peter Tatchell a "national treasure" - imagine that!
You may have to.
Here's a piece by Hugh Muir in The Guardian last year Peter Tatchell: the reluctant national treasure.
But there Muir appears to be "consulting" a piece from The Guardian five years ago, which asked titularly (and rhetorically); Is Peter Tatchell a national treasure?
Reading that you realise the words "national treasure" are The Guardian's, not the Mail's.
Here's The Daily Mail piece that Hugh Muir refers to in today's Diary; He's been beaten by Mugabe's thugs and Russian Nazis: Is Peter Tatchell the bravest man in Britain?
Ironically it's one of the few recent profiles of Peter Tatchell that doesn't call him a "national treasure".
To my knowledge the Mail never has.
But let me know if you find one.

• Peter Tatchell has written an obituary of Rose Robertson - founder of the lesbian and gay counselling service Parents Enquiry - in today's Guardian.

• Donate to the Peter Tatchell Human Rights Fund.

Alan Bennett: A National Treasure?

There is a profile of Alan Bennett in The Sunday Times titled The National's Treasure.
It's a double-ended pun as the feature's written by Nicholas Hytner, the director of the National Theatre, who's directed seven of Bennett's plays.
The two men discuss their working relationship in Alan Bennett and The Habit of Art on More4 on Saturday.
Profiles of Alan Bennett seem dutybound to describe him as "a national treasure" these days - a cliche quite freely applied to other people.
"It's a funny bit of cookery," Peter York told The Guardian last year. "You need durability, you need to be fairly mature [he thinks 50 and above is about right] and you need to have a basic craft or skill."
According to The Guardian, York thinks the real national treasures are fairly mid-market performers who have been around for so long you feel they must have hidden depths ("June Whitfield, for instance") and those, such as Judi Dench and David Attenborough, "who have always been at the top of their game and you're just glad they're there. 'Don't die yet!' That's what that's about."
The Observer today is asking readers; "Help us find Britain's National Treasures".
"What connects union firebrand Arthur Scargill, maverick musician Mark E Smith and comedy actress June Whitfield..."
I bet Alan Bennett wins that one, he's one of those gay men the nation seems to treasure.
Elton John gets called a national treasure a lot, often with the explainer that he's "the Queen Mum of Pop", which I think may mean we're all suposed to like him.
And much of the recent hooha about Stephen Fry was arguably because a "national treasure" like him isn't supposed to touch on tricky topics - a bit like the Queen talking about politics.
Which you could argue it was.
Alan Bennett has said he hates his national treasure status.
Which seems to be confirmed in the Sunday Times piece.
'He pleads with those who talk about him to the press to blow his cover,' writes Hytner. '“Tell them I’m a cunt, love.”'