The History Boys, the film of Alan Bennett’s play, uses the play’s director Nick Hytner and the entire cast from the National Theatre.
As an entertainment for middle class parents it works very well and I think young people might like it too.
It’s about sixth formers and teachers in a Sheffield school where eight boys do exceptionally well in their history A-level and stay on an extra term to do the Oxford entrance exam.
The characters of the students are very well written, so the boys are very distinct from each other, and the teachers are very well played, especially Frances de la Tour, who is fabulous. The head seems too old-fashioned for 1983 but Jan, a teacher, assures me there are heads like that. And the story has some good twists in the last half hour.
Some liberal journalists have a problem with the snobbery, and reckon the Forties songs the lads perform are unrealistic in the age of Boy George, but I’m a liberal journalist and I found the film very funny and the 110 minutes flashed by quickly
If you’re a middle class parent, and haven’t seen the play, you’ll probably love The History Boys.