Maggie Smith superstars with this BBC radio version of Alan Bennett’s highly acclaimed autobiographical stage play

An eccentric outdated lady moves right into a quiet street in Camden Town. There she continues to be, set up in her van in glorious self-sufficiency, before council instructs her to move on. A kind property owner invites her to move her truck into his garden – where she remains for the next fifteen years. This is actually the fascinating story of the genteel vagrant who found a unique place in Alan Bennett’s about THE GIRL in the Van: A BBC Radio 4 adaptation life and writing.

But the crisis is as very much about the author himself as Miss Shepherd. Why did Alan Bennett let her commandeer his driveway? Was he performing out of kindness, weakness, or hidden guilt over not spending enough time with his personal mother? Did he always subconsciously plan to exploit Miss Shepherd for literary revenue? Thought-provoking and moving, The Lady in the Truck tackles profound questions about interpersonal responsibility, homelessness and mental illness using a lightness of touch quality of Bennett the get good at storyteller.

With a full cast including Adrian Scarborough, Marcia Warren and Alan Bennett, this bitter-sweet comic tale stars Maggie Smith as Miss Shepherd.

Now a major BBC feature film, starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings.