Alan Brien

I always admired Alan Brian's journalism, though I remember it chiefly for his film and theatre criticisms. They were incisive, humorous pieces, enjoyable in the way that they can be when critics go to the theatre to enjoy themselves (some, I feel, go there not to).
He was a contemporary of Kenneth Tynan, as good a writer but not quite so deep in his analyses.
Auberon Waugh apparently used to write a satirical column in Private Eye in which he parodied Brian's style. I am not surprised at this because Auberon Waugh, like his father Evelyn Waugh, could take against a person for his politics, opinions or even looks to an almost venomous extent; but also Auberon might have known of his father's intense dislike on first meeting Alan Brian who had been invited to join a friend of his at White's Club: "What's someone like this doing here?" he asked Brian's friend scornfully.
I have to say I have had my fill of The Waughs. If I never hear of them again that'll be too soon. But I wish I did not admire Evelyn Waugh so much as a novelist.
I think it was Alan Brian who said, in my opinion, something very true about Harold Pinter's plays; he said words to the effect that "his plays are like 'who-dunnits' without the body".
Alan Brian died on May 23rd. this year aged 83.

John, who commented on my blog on Jack Benny. Thanks for your remarks: you are right about Mel Brooks re-making "To Be Or Not To Be" and that maybe the presence of Jack Benny in the original made the difference between a good film and one not so good, though I have to say that although I praised Benny highly I should too have drawn attention to the fact that Ernst Lubisch directed it; he always did something wonderful to his films and possibly Mel Brookes's coarseness (usually deliberate) contributed to the re-make's failure.