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British author Alan Bennett & British actress Maggie Smith plus US photographers Larry Sultan & Mike Mandel

Celebrated British playwright Alan Bennett recently published the third edition of his set of memoirs. It’s called “Keeping On, Keeping On”, and it focuses on the work he produced between 2005 to 2014. In those nine years he wrote "The Habit of Art", "People", "Hymn" and "Cocktail Sticks" - all of which premiered at the National Theatre and were very successful. He also wrote the screenplays for the film versions of “The History Boys” which is probably his most famous play and “The Lady in the Van”. “The Lady in the Van” is based on the true story of a lady called Mary Shepherd who lived in an old van on Alan Bennett’s drive. In this edition of Madrid Live, Alan Bennett tells us how “The Lady in the Van” came about and Dame Maggie Smith talks about playing Mary Shepherd. Maggie Smith was nominated for Best Leading Actress at the BAFTA film awards for her role in “The Lady in the Van”.

Plus Ann Bateson's interview with American photographers Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel about their photobook “Evidence”. Larry and Mike went though thousands of forensic archives, and picked out 60 photos. They realised they could use scientific fact – these photos - to speak about scientific fiction… what our imagination does with images. They later published the photos in a book called “Evidence” which is regarded as one of the most important photobooks in the history of photography. The photos in "Evidence” were also on show at the PhotoEspaña Festival in Madrid.

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