102 Boulevard Haussmann

Set in 1916 during World War I, Marcel Proust lives a nocturnal, closeted life in Paris, obsessed by his writing and looked after by his devoted housekeeper Céleste Albaret.

On a rare visit to a concert, he becomes fascinated by the music of a string quartet, which includes a young viola player, Amable Massis, a war veteran who he befriends.

Writer Alan Bennett made the point in the script about wanting to "show people who are artistically engaged in the process of creativity as being barely human".

[5] John J. O'Connor, said that Alan Bennett created an "extraordinarily complex universe, exploring with painstaking detail shifting relationships and subtle controls, esthetic theory and sexual obsessions, indeed life and art".

He also praised Alan Bates as capturing "the underlying strength of the writer", and "lending enormous support is the music, performed by the Delmé String Quartet".