Nigel Havers Spies Another Bennett Transfer???

Nigel Havers Nigel Havers is going under cover to star with Diana Quick in a new production of Alan Bennett's Single Spies, which will launch a regional tour in December ahead of a possible West End transfer. Bennett's double bill, comprising An Englishman Abroad and A Question of Attribution, exploits the comic potential of cold war spies, the royal art collection and the Queen.

In the first, slightly-gone-to-seed, double agent Guy Burgess is enjoying a vodka-soaked lunch with actress Coral Browne while exiled in Moscow. In the second, set back in England, spy Anthony Blunt is also an art historian, who is 'caught' by Her Majesty while trying to replace one of her favourite Titians. An Englishman Abroad was first seen as a short television play, which Bennett adapted for the stage and paired with A Question of Attribution for a 1988 premiere at the National Theatre. In that production, Bennett himself played Anthony Blunt. Christopher Luscombe directs the new revival.

Ahead of any Single Spies, the NT’s multi award-winning production of Bennett’s The History Boys returns for its “last ever” London season, starting performances back at the West End’s Wyndham’s Theatre on 20 December 2007, with Desmond Barrit playing unconventional English teacher Hector (See News, 9 Aug 2007).

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