The Lady in the Van The Lady in the Van The Lady in the Van is a 2015 British comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner, and starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings, based on the novel of the same name created by Alan Bennett. It was written by Alan Bennett, and it tells the (mostly) true story of his interactions with Mary Shepherd, an elderly woman who lived in a dilapidated van on his driveway in London for 15 years. He had previously published the story as a 1989 essay, 1990 book, 1999 stage play, and 2009 radio play on BBC Radio 4. Smith had
Lady in the Water Nickelodeon's "" television series, which also received overwhelmingly negative reviews. CNN's Tom Charity, among others, has called "Lady in the Water" the worst film of 2006. It was listed by "Variety" as one of the ten "biggest (financial) losers" of 2006. Wesley Morris of "The Boston Globe" wrote that though the film is "built on too much ponderous self-regard…[t]here is a good chunk of "Lady in the Water" that is simply too well made and affectingly acted to dismiss as a mere exercise in arrogance." Conversely, the film was ranked 6th in the influential film magazine "Cahiers du cinéma"s top