Kevin Loader

1916. As war rages on the Western Front, the Choral Society in Ramsden, Yorkshire, has lost most of its men to the army. The Choral's ambitious committee, determined to press ahead, decides to recruit local young males to swell their ranks. They must also engage a new chorus master, and despite their suspicions that he has something to hide, their best bet seems to be Dr. Henry Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes), driven, uncompromising, and recently returned from a career in Germany. As conscription papers start to arrive, the whole community discovers that the best response to the chaos that is laying waste to their lives is to make music together.

A man forms an unexpected bond with a transient woman living in her van that's parked in his driveway. This movie tells the true story of Alan Bennett's (Alex Jennings') strained friendship with Miss Mary Shepherd (Dame Maggie Smith), an eccentric homeless woman who Bennett befriended in the 1970s before allowing her temporarily to park her Bedford van in the driveway of his Camden house. She stayed there for fifteen years. As the story develops, Bennett learns that Miss Shepherd is really Margaret Fairchild (died 1989), a former gifted pupil of 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. Based upon the true story of London playwright and actor Alan Bennett's (Alex Jennings') unusual multi-year relationship with an eccentric elderly, homeless woman he knew as Miss Mary Shepherd (Dame Maggie Smith) in the 1970s before allowing her to park her van in the driveway of his home. She stayed there for fifteen years. Miss Shepherd was, in fact, Margaret Fairchild, former pupil of pianist Alfred Cortot. She played Chopin in a concert, and after she tried to become a nun, was institutionalized by her brother. Living in fear of being caught and sent back, she had an accident when her van was hit by a motorcyclist for which she believed herself to blame, and thereafter was also fearful of arrest. —Huggo This movie tells the story of Alan Bennett's (Alex Jennings') strained friendship with Miss Mary Shepherd (Dame Maggie Smith), an eccentric homeless woman who Bennett befriended in the 1970s before allowing her temporarily to park her Bedford van in the driveway of his Camden house. She stayed there for fifteen years. As the story develops, Bennett learns that Miss Shepherd is really Margaret Fairchild, a former gifted pupil of pianist Alfred Cortot. A memoir from acclaimed English playwright and author Alan Bennett is the basis for this film, centred on Miss Shepherd (Maggie Smith), a woman of uncertain origins who 'temporarily' parks her van in Bennett's London driveway and proceeds to live there for 15 years. What begins as a begrudging favour becomes a relationship that will change both their lives.