The Lady in the Van

Alan Bennett’s iconic and celebrated memoir is sensitively brought to the screen by his long-standing collaborator Nicholas Hytner. The film tells the true story of the relationship between Alan Bennett and the singular Miss Shepherd (Maggie Smith, on formidable form), a woman of uncertain origins who ‘temporarily’ parked her van in Bennett’s London driveway and proceeded to live there for 15 years. Funny and poignant, Hytner’s ear for Bennett’s dialogue and his ability to marshal an estimable cast are abundantly in evidence.