The Lady in the Van
by Alan Bennett
Cast
Miss Shepherd ..... Maggie Smith
Alan Bennett ..... Adrian Scarborough
Alan Bennett 2 ..... Alan Bennett
Mam ..... Marcia Warren
Rufus ..... Matt Addis
Pauline ..... Janice Acquah
Underwood ..... Stephen Critchlow
Social Worker ..... Caroline Guthrie
Fairchild ..... Philip Fox
Doctors ..... Jonathan Tafler and Malcolm Tierney
Music composed by Simon Morecroft
Adapted and Directed by Gordon House
The Lady in the Van is the first radio production of Alan Bennett's autobiographical stage play, starring Alan Bennett himself as one of the two "Alan Bennetts" featured in the drama, and reprising the brilliant stage performance of Dame Maggie Smith as Miss Mary Shepherd, the lady who takes refuge in his Camden garden for three months, and ends up staying fifteen years.
When Alan Bennett adapted his short autobiographical memoir The Lady in the Van, into a full length stage play, it received some excellent critical reviews. "One of the saddest, funniest and most distinguished offerings for years" wrote John Peter in the Sunday Times, while Charles Spencer, in the Daily Telegraph, thought it was "without doubt, the best new play of the year. Now Radio 4 brings this wonderfully bitter-sweet comic diary to the airwaves, with Maggie Smith once more playing the eccentric and cantankerous Miss Shepherd, and Alan Bennett and Adrian Scarborough playing the two Alan Bennetts - one in the role of the omniscient narrator, and one experiencing events as they occur.
Replies
An excellent production!
If anyone is interested, i have the complete audiobook, read by Bennett.
As an aside, the 2011 date shwon above is a rebroadcast. the play was first broadcast on February 21, 2009