The BBC has begun filming a new series of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues. The series, which was first shown on the BBC in 1988 and 1998, will include remakes of 10 of the original monologues, alongside two new ones that Bennett wrote last year.

The new series will feature some of the biggest British TV stars, including Jodie Comer, Maxine Peake and Sarah Lancashire.

“In such difficult circumstances, that the BBC should choose to remount both series of Talking Heads, and produce two entirely new ones, is a comfort and a huge compliment,” said Bennett. “I hope a new generation of actors will get and give as much pleasure as we did 20 and 30 years ago.”

The new series will be produced by Nicholas Hytner and Kevin Loader, with the press release saying that they will be shown “in the coming months”. Filming is already taking place at Elstree studios, with the production team “following the latest government guidelines on Covid-19 to ensure that the series is made safely and responsibly”.

“Covid-19 has laid waste to drama production in the UK,” says the controller of BBC drama, Piers Wenger, “but it has also posed a challenge: how do we adhere to restrictions while still offering British viewers the chance to lose themselves in great stories at this time of national need?

“Full of insight, wit, daring and compassion, these are stories of individual lives – but of great resonance. I am so grateful to Alan, Nicholas Hytner, Kevin Loader and the whole team for the caution, ingenuity and wisdom which they have shown in bringing these stories to the screen.”

When the monologues were first shown they won two Baftas and an RTS award, and have since been a staple of the English Literature syllabus at A-level and GCSE.

“Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads are among the masterworks of one of the very greatest writers in TV, film and theatre history,” says Hytner, a long-time collaborator of Bennett’s and the lead director and producer on the project. “It has been a profound and fascinating experience to work out a way of making them again.

“It is a wonderful bonus that two of the 2020 Talking Heads are totally new, written only a short time before the current crisis began. And everyone involved has been working in an unprecedented way, rigorously observing social distancing, entirely rethinking ways of filmmaking that until a few weeks ago seemed routine.

“The shoot will never bring any of us within touching distance of each other, but I hope that in every other way it will reach out and touch millions of viewers.”

The monologues that will air on BBC One in the coming months are:

• Jodie Comer in Her Big Chance (1988), directed by Josie Rourke

• Monica Dolan in The Shrine (2019), directed by Nicholas Hytner

• Martin Freeman in A Chip in the Sugar (1988), directed by Jeremy Herrin

• Tamsin Greig in Nights in the Garden of Spain (1998), directed by Marianne Elliott

• Sarah Lancashire in An Ordinary Woman (2019), directed by Nicholas Hytner

• Lesley Manville in Bed Among the Lentils (1988), directed by Nicholas Hytner

• Lucian Msamati in Playing Sandwiches (1998), directed by Jeremy Herrin

• Maxine Peake in Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet (1988), directed by Sarah Frankcom

• Rochenda Sandall in The Outside Dog (1998), directed by Nadia Fall

• Kristin Scott Thomas in The Hand of God (1998), directed by Jonathan Kent

• Imelda Staunton in A Lady of Letters (1988), directed by Jonathan Kent

• Harriet Walter in Soldiering On (1988), directed by Marianne Elliott