<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs an improved plot summary . (December 2016) </Td> </Tr> <P> The Lady in the Van tells the true story of Alan Bennett's strained friendship with Miss Mary Shepherd, an eccentric homeless woman whom Bennett befriended in the 1970s before allowing her temporarily to park her Bedford van in the driveway of his Camden home . She stayed there for 15 years . As the story develops Bennett learns that Miss Shepherd is really Margaret Fairchild, a former gifted pupil of the pianist Alfred Cortot . She had played Chopin in a promenade concert, tried to become a nun, was committed to an institution by her brother, escaped, had an accident when her van was hit by a motorcyclist for which she believed herself to blame, and thereafter lived in fear of arrest . </P> <Ul> <Li> Maggie Smith as Miss Mary Shepherd / Margaret Fairchild </Li> <Li> Alex Jennings as Alan Bennett </Li> <Li> Clare Hammond as young Margaret Fairchild </Li> <Li> Roger Allam as Rufus </Li> <Li> Deborah Findlay as Pauline </Li> <Li> Jim Broadbent as Underwood </Li> <Li> Claire Foy as Lois </Li> <Li> Cecilia Noble as Miss Briscoe </Li> <Li> Gwen Taylor as Mum </Li> <Li> Frances de la Tour as Ursula Vaughan Williams </Li> <Li> Nicholas Burns as Giles Perry </Li> <Li> Pandora Colin as Mrs Perry </Li> </Ul> <Li> Maggie Smith as Miss Mary Shepherd / Margaret Fairchild </Li>

Who played alan bennett's mother in the lady in the van