ALAN BENNETT - BENNETT ASTONISHED BY TONY HYPE

Tony Award-winning British playwright ALAN BENNETT is still reeling from the publicity attached to his win at Sunday's (11JUN06) New York City theatre extravaganza, because his last Tony prize went almost unnoticed. Bennett, who picked up Best Play for THE HISTORY BOYS, won his first Tony in 1963 as part of the comedy revue BEYOND THE FRINGE, alongside PETER COOK, DUDLEY MOORE and JOHNATHAN MILLER. And he is stunned by the difference to his latest trophy haul, insisting, "It's like another life. "The Tony I got for Beyond The Fringe was presented in one room at the Astor Hotel. It was a very small-scale ceremony. "I have not followed the history of the Tonys since. I had no idea it was such an enormous deal. "I am genuinely touched that the response here (in America) has been so generous, because there must be things in it (The History Boys) that are slightly mysterious and local and English." The History Boys follows a class of young men desperate to win university places at Oxford or Cambridge, as well as the teachers pushing them for success.