Last month, Theatre Royal Haymarket announced the West End return of the Olivier and Tony Award-winning hit play The History Boys by Alan Bennett. The Nicholas Hytner-directed production was a landmark for the National Theatre, leading to several revivals, a West End transfer, UK tours and a film.
It even inspired a long-running joke in Matt Le Blanc’s BBC comedy Episodes. In the show, Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan played screen-writers who were often accused of stealing their idea from The History Boys.
The play centres around a small sixth form class, as they navigate sex, school politics and their teachers’ battle of wills all while trying to get into university. Along with being a hit play for Bennett, it was a launching pad for the schoolboys who have all gone on to have notable careers.
Alongside their many, many roles, the boys reunited in 2015 for cameo roles in the film The Lady In The Van, also written by Alan Bennett and directed by Nicholas Hytner.
Russell Tovey
Shortly after The History Boys, Russell Tovey starred in a two very different domestic sitcoms for BBC Three. The first was Being Human, which also had supernatural horror elements and saw Tovey play a werewolf, opposite Aiden Turner’s vampire. He then starred in Him & Her, a more straight forward sitcom about a young, lazy couple.
He moved into bigger drama roles such as Years and Years by Russell T Davies’ (who cast him twice in the Doctor Who universe) and American Horror Story. He has continued to work on the stage, including the National’s acclaimed Angels In America. He recently starred in the suspense filled drama The Guilty, which transfers to the West End in January.
James Corden
Shortly after The History Boys, Corden co-wrote Gavin & Stacey alongside Ruth Jones which became one of the most succesful British sitcoms of the 21st century. It also featured many of the cast of The History Boys in small roles. After Gavin & Stacey’s original run finished, he made two appearances in Doctor Who, before returning to the stage in the hugely succesful comedy One Man, Two Guv’nors. Shortly after, he became the host of The Late Late Show in the US, with popular segments such as Carpool Karaoke.
Samuel Barnett
Barnett continued to work in theatre after The History Boys, including in Mark Rylance’s acclaimed repertory production of Richard III and Twelfth Night, which had runs in the West End and on Broadway. He has also found success on TV in the original series of Twenty Twelve, a recurring role in US drama Penny Dreadful and is currently starring in Black Doves on Netflix.
Having starred in the UK Theatre Award-winning Best New Play – The Last Stand Of Mrs. Mary Whitehouse – last year in Nottingham, he returns to the London stage this month in Pride, a new musical based on the hit film and true story.
Samuel Anderson
Like many other History Boys, Anderson became a recurring character in Gavin & Stacey, before landing a central role in the 2014 series of Doctor Who as Danny Pink, then the Netflix sci-fi drama Another Life.
He is currently starring in a lead role in the BBC sitcom Amandaland, a spin-off of Motherland, starring Joanna Lumley and Lucy Punch.
Dominic Cooper
Just after The History Boys, Cooper starred in the film adaptation of the ABBA musical sensation Mamma Mia!, before reprising in the role in its 2018 sequel Here We Go Again.
He also scored a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Iron Man’s father, the young Howard Stark, which landed him roles in Captain America: The First Avenger and its spin-off TV series Agent Carter. His last stage role was in a revival of the 17th century play The Libertine in 2016.
Sacha Dhawan
After The History Boys, Dhawan appeared in a number of guest roles, including as a recurring character in Mr Selfridge, ITV’s drama about the founding of the Selfridge’s department store. He also appeared in the Kay Mellor drama In The Club, before landing a role as The Master in Doctor Who, nemesis of the Time Lord.
He reunited with both Alan Bennett and Samuel Barnett in Allelujah at the Bridge Theatre.
Andrew Knott
Immediately after The History Boys, Knott appeared in the BBC One sci-fi hit Life On Mars, before being cast in the Spooks spin-off drama series Code 9. Last month he appeared in the new ITV romantic drama Adultery, alongside History Boys alumnus Dominic Cooper and Olivier Award winner Romola Garai.
Jamie Parker
As well as roles in hit TV series and films such as The Crown and 1917, Parker has become a mainstay of the theatre world – receiving three Olivier Award nominations and a Tony Award nomination for his roles in both plays and musicals. He won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Harry Potter And The Cursed Child in 2017.
Earlier this year he starred as The Baker in Into The Woods at the Bridge Theatre, before its transfer into the West End this month.
The role has since been taken over by John Dagleish who, by a strange coincidence, also took over the lead role of The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button when that transferred into the West End.
Matt Smith
Okay, this one is a bit cheeky. Matt Smith wasn’t in the original production of The History Boys but he took over from Andrew Knott when the show returned to the National a year after its debut. Like many of the above he also starred in Doctor Who, taking on the lead role from 2010-2013 when the world’s longest running sci-fi series celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Smith continued to work on stage, appearing in a sold-out run in American Psycho immediately after Doctor Who, as well as the Ibsen classic An Enemy Of The People in 2024. It’s just been announced he will return to the West End next year in The Humans, a new play adapted by Jack Thorne (Adolescence) from the novel by Matt Haig (Midnight Library).
The History Boys returns in April 2027
It’s incredible to look back and think that so many famous faces came from one production. Will the 2027 revival create another set of stars set to rule theatre, film and TV for the following 20 years?
