After Miss Shepherd drove her van into Alan Bennett's garden in 1974, his friends used to ask him if he was planning to write a play about her. He wasn't intending to, but twenty five years on, he crafted "The Lady in the Van". The time lag was in part due to the fact that Alan Bennett found it difficult to write about someone who was still alive and, as he says in the play's introduction "still on site". 

The play is set in the early 1970s in Gloucester Crescent, Camden, London where Alan Bennett lived for about 40 years before moving to Primrose Hill.  It covers a span of some 15 years during which the story of interactions between Alan and Miss Shepherd is told. As with the film, the device of two Alan Bennetts is used to show the audience the conflict between the inner and outer persona.  There are plenty of moments of sheer joy and laughter throughout as well as, of course, some poignant moments of reflection and snide digs at the establishment, religion and politics.