Should we be horrified that The History Boys, Alan Bennett’s 2004 play about a grammar school class applying to Oxbridge in the 1980s, is to be revived for a 16-week run at the Theatre Royal Haymarket next year? It was, after all, voted the nation’s favourite play in 2013. But it comes with a very big problem, which is inevitably going to attract negative attention when put on stage now: it revolves around a pederast schoolmaster who is portrayed extremely sympathetically, even to the point of making him the hero of the piece. An awful lot has happened in the field of public opinion on that subject over the past two decades.

Younger audiences should understand how the pederast used to hide in plain sight

Younger audiences should understand how the pederast used to hide in plain sight

If you haven’t seen The History Boys, the schoolmaster in question is Hector. He is a terrible teacher, although it is clear that Bennett wants us to think the opposite. He is popular because he is entertaining, getting the boys at one point to act out a scene in a Parisian brothel – a scene interrupted by the entrance of the headmaster. To prevent Hector getting into trouble, the boys pretend that one of their number has his trousers around his ankles because he........

© The Spectator