It didn’t really matter what the first reviews of the World Premiere of ‘The Lady in The Van’ at the Toronto International Film Festival actually say as we are hardly going to pass up a chance to see the veteran actress Dame Maggie Smith shine in a role that was especially written for her by out-gay screenwriter Alan Bennett.  As it happens although there maybe an odd comment here and there about the slightness of the plot, the critics are unanimous that Dame Maggie is nothing less than brilliant as the irascible Miss Shepherd.

Based on a true story that actually happened to Bennett when he lived in one of London’s more genteel streets and it tells the true story of his strained friendship with Miss Mary Shepherd, an eccentric homeless woman whom he befriended in the 1970s before allowing her to temporarily park her Bedford van in the driveway of his Camden home. She stayed there for 15 years. Bennett first wrote the story as a radio play before adapting it for the London stage and now it has finally made it to the silver screen.  Each time the role has been written for Dame Maggie and the last time she played it she picked up an Olivier Award Nomination for Best Actress, and now the buzz is that she could well add a nod from Oscar this time around.