The Lady in the Van is a 2015 British[3] comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner, and starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings, based on the memoir of the same name created by Alan Bennett.

It was written by Bennett, and it tells the (mostly[6]) true story of his interactions with Mary Shepherd, an elderly woman who lived in a dilapidated van on his driveway in north London for 15 years.

Soon afterwards, he meets Miss Mary Shepherd, an irritable, eccentric, unsanitary, and religious homeless woman living in an old Bedford van, who squats outside multiple houses in Bennett's street of Gloucester Crescent.

One day, a couple of youths scare Miss Shepherd, shaking the van and yelling at her, which causes her to wake from a nightmare she was having of a long ago traffic accident.

Though initially hesitant, a wealthy neighbour buys her a new van, and Miss Shepherd moves into his driveway, where she proceeds to stay for 15 years, from 1974 to 1989.

At her funeral, Bennett finds out that after Shepherd escaped from Banstead, she was involved in an accident when her van was hit by a motorcyclist, for whose death she believed herself to blame.

The real Alan Bennett is shown observing the final scene being filmed, in which his younger self unveils a blue plaque on his home dedicated to "Miss M.T Shepherd, The Lady in the Van".

This includes the "temporary teacher" (Moore) and all the "students" from that earlier film: Samuel Barnett (as Donald),[10] Samuel Anderson (as a Jehovah's Witness), Stephen Campbell Moore (as a doctor),[11] Dominic Cooper (as a theatre actor), James Corden (as a street trader),[12] Sacha Dhawan (as Doctor Malik),[13] Andrew Knott (as an ambulance driver), Clive Merrison (as a man attending confession),[11] Jamie Parker (as an estate agent),[12] and Russell Tovey (as a man with an earring).

The involvement of Maggie Smith and Nicholas Hytner was announced simultaneously with the film,[14] but they were attached to the project as early as 9 May (coincidentally, Bennett's 80th birthday).

[19] The production crew filmed for two days in November 2014 in Broadstairs in the Isle of Thanet, Kent, notably Viking Bay, featuring Morelli's Gelato and the Palace Cinema.

Producer Kevin Loader described Viking Bay as "the perfect location" and said the area had benefited by £40,000, as the 50-strong crew stayed locally and took advantage of the various restaurants and bars.

The site's consensus states, "Led by a marvelous performance from Maggie Smith, Lady in the Van wrings poignant, often hilarious insight from its fact-based source material.

[33] "Maggie Smith delivers a compelling performance in The Lady in the Van, as Alan Bennett’s play comes to the big screen 15 years after it premiered at the National Theatre."

Even though, he says, the film is "low on narrative drive" and "marred by a misjudged final act", "Hytner's amiable [love] fest" is "enlivened by Smith’s signature irascibility; silver-dollar auds should turn up, if not in droves, at least in healthy vanloads".

[10] Frank Scheck, of The Hollywood Reporter, also attended the premiere, and like Lodge, he felt Smith's character was the "driving force" behind the film.

For example, when her character "receives guidance from the Virgin Mary; her utter obliviousness to her lack of personal hygiene; her hatred of the sound of music that sends her fleeing whenever she hears a note; and her ragtag wardrobe which has been assembled from various dumpsters".

In spite of the humour, Scheck praised Smith for "subtly convey[ing] the emotional pain and desperation of [an] addled old woman, especially in the scenes [where she is] taken away by social services and gently treated to a thorough washing, feeding and medical examination".

He also commended the directing, saying: "Unshowy to a fault, Hytner delivers a fine, moving comedy of English manners between a writer and his eccentric tenant, which slowly deepens into an exploration of human bonds".