Miss Fozzard in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads

Miss Fozzard in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads

The video, “Talking Heads Two” was made in 1998. It is a collection of

six dramatic monologues by various different actors, each one telling

their own story. Bennett wrote a series of monologues in 1988 for BBC

2 at a time when they were having financial difficulties. Monologues

were chosen as they only required a few actors and cameramen. They

were successful and Bennett decided to write a second series of

monologues, the one which I am going to study is called “Miss Fozzard

finds her feet” and I will be discussing how Alan Bennett creates her

character and how her story is told.

The monologues were written for, and shown on television. The use of

the “talking head” as a dramatic device is effective as the audience

sees the expression on the actors face and then feels the emotion the

actor is portraying in their role. The effect of using the monologue

form is effective as there is only one character so the audience can

connect and understand the character better. In the collection of

monologues there are no special effects used i.e. flashbacks,

distractions also helps the audience understand the character.

The audience also has to use their imagination as other characters are

only spoken about and not seen so the audience has to imagine what

they look like. Also, as the monologues are only set in one scene, for

example Miss Fozzard’s lounge, the different locations described by

the characters also have to be imagined.

The purpose of the monologue is to entertain, however there is a limit

to which effects the producers can afford to use however, many

wouldn’t be used in a monol...

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... tone of voices of the unseen characters

used by Patricia Routledge (the actress) creates a successful

character. I think her characters exterior seems boring to someone who

takes a first glance, but as you get to know her throughout the

monologue her character evolves into someone interesting and funny. If

I was a member of the audience I think I would find Miss Fozzard

inoffensive and quite eccentric. However, I think these qualities in a

person are often amusing, as we frequently find in the monologue, and

her prejudice views may be at times questionable, but are mostly

harmless and funny. The audience would feel that this is only due to

Miss Fozzard’s old fashioned manner and this is what she has been

brought up to think. Overall, her character is excellently created and

brought to life and I enjoyed the monologue.