Sir: Sigh. I’m inclined to agree with the points Andrew
Roberts makes about misrepresentation and the liberal/left cast of history teaching (‘The History Boys film gets me all wrong’, 7 October). But I and one of two others missed the run at the National Theatre and were looking forward to the film. Sadly we won’t enjoy it as much as we hoped because Andrew, in full polemic spate, revealed in his penultimate paragraph what is presumably a key plot development. So he has got his own back on Alan Bennett: he has spoiled the drama.
I’m reminded of an experience years ago when I told a friend that I’d not seen Don’t Look Now and was looking forward to catching up with it. He wondered, ‘Wasn’t that the one where Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland’s daughter gets drowned in a red party dress, and they keep thinking that they see her reincarnated in Venice, but it’s only a crazed dwarf who’s out to get them?’ I volunteered, ‘Yes, it probably was.’ I admire the National Film Theatre’s policy of prefacing its excellent free information with a ‘plot spoiler’ warning. I wonder if the articles and reviews need one?
Alan Riley London SE1
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