ONE FINE DAY (1979)

Playwright Laureate isn’t a thing, but if it was, Alan Bennett is a lock for the British shortlist.  With a major film out in November (THE CHORAL/’25), Bennett starts a seventh decade of dissecting the British character (Division: White upper-middle class & those striving to be, with detours into royalty), going back to his breakthru as monologist in BEYOND THE FRINGE/1964.  (His three equally unknown partners at the time Jonathan Miller, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.)  This 1979 tv film, one of a series of six, was directed by Stephen Frears (already showing his chameleon-like way of suiting style to content), and is largely representative of the Bennett manner: droll, sec, with wry character touches and reverse engineered twists.  This example comes packed inside a mid-life crisis for senior real estate agent Dave Allen, stuck at home with a college student son and the boy’s new sleep-in girlfriend; and at work with a nine-story White Elephant office property boss Robert Stephens is tired of carrying on the books, especially since young office pup Dominic Guard thinks he can flip it to residential for a quick sale.  With beautifully observed office behavior & characters (everything but business discussed ad infinitum by the staff, while holding to a strict pecking order of office seniority, as fiercely defended as royal privileges at Windsor Court in the 1600s.  Allen’s character effectively drops out by squatting in his empty office building to get way from it all, warding off involvement behind a sound barricade of Puccini arias.*  This being Bennett, avoidance is just the ticket to make the world go round and come out right with all problems healed.  Slow boil justice.

DOUBLE-BILL:  A decade later, Bennett dug deeper than usual with six solo character monologues, TALKING HEADS/’88, including the much acclaimed BED AMONG THE LENTILS written for regular collaborator Maggie Smith, who just happened to be Robert Stephens’ ‘ex.’  Actor Toby Stephens is their son.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  The title, ONE FINE DAY, is the translation of ‘Un Bel Di,’ the best known aria from Puccini’s MADAMA BUTTERFLY; and (unless I missed it) one of the few hit Puccini arias not used here.