The Lady in the Van, the "quietly magical" British drama starring Maggie Smith and Roger Allam, is leaving a UK streamer very soon – here's how to watch it before it expires.
The 2015 film is based on the memoir of the same name by Alan Bennett, with the story charting the friendship between the playwright (played here by Alex Jennings) and Mary Shepherd (Smith), a cantankerous elderly woman who lived in his driveway for 15 years.
Boasting a stacked supporting cast including Frances de la Tour and Jim Broadbent, the '70s-set drama is currently available to stream in the UK on BBC iPlayer, though you will have to hurry as it is due to leave the service on 4 October.
Written by Bennett and directed by Nicholas Hytner, the British drama was well received by critics upon its original release, with Rotten Tomatoes currently reporting an approval rating of 89% from 152 reviews.
"On the surface, The Lady in the Van is mild to a fault but – like its author – it is powered by sharp observations about life and people," opined Little White Lies as they called it "quietly magical".
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"Smith's performance, honed from the previous stage and radio versions, is terrifically good," wrote The Guardian, while The Wall Street Journal described it as "wonderfully funny [and] terribly touching".
"There's no use fending off the force of nature that is Smith. Sensitive and formidable, self-deprecating and brave, she elevates every role she's in, as we know by now," wrote The Washington Post.
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While The Lady in the Van is only on BBC iPlayer for another week, mystery thriller Before I Go to Sleep has a longer shelf life after being added to the streamer last week following its airing on BBC One.
Starring Anne-Marie Duff, the film sees Nicole Kidman portray a woman who has been suffering from retrograde amnesia, only to suspect that her husband (played by Colin Firth) may not have been telling her the whole truth.
The Lady in the Van is streaming on BBC iPlayer until 4 October.
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Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
