Where are they now?
Jenny Agutter... currently (and famously!) plays Sister Julienne in BBC TV series, Call the Midwife
Sally Thomsett... gave up acting to be a mum but regularly attends fan conventions
contract to say she wouldn’t reveal her age to anyone, meaning she was banned from drinking alcohol, driving, or being seen with her boyfriend in public. Instead, all the crew treated her like a child, giving her sweeties while they chatted to Jenny – who was younger than her – like a grown-up. One night in the hotel room Sally and Jenny shared on location, they got bored of drinking squash and ran off to a nightclub in Leeds. Shortly after getting there, though, they bumped into Lionel Jeffries and the film’s producer Robert Lynn and were quickly frog-marched back to the hotel!
But it wasn’t just the cast who caused chaos, the set had its fair share of problems too.
The scene where Roberta rushes to her daddy on a smoky station platform is the film’s most iconic but initially, it went wrong. The scene demanded lots of smoke to fill the platform so Daddy could gradually emerge through the haze. A train had been specifically modified to generate the smoke. On the day, everything was set up and the actors in place when they suddenly realised someone had accidentally swapped the trains over with no means of creating the much-needed smoke. Long pipes were urgently dragged in to pump water to try to recreate the effect but the filming schedule had to be delayed until the trains could be swapped back.
As for one of the film’s other landmark moments – the scene where a landslide collapses onto the train line forcing the Waterbury children to get creative with their undergarments – it was so dangerous, nothing was allowed to go wrong. As the train gets up close to Roberta (Jenny Agutter) and she waves her petticoat to the driver, the crew actually filmed the train moving backwards away from the children and then later reversed the footage.
To create the effect of the landslide, fibreglass trees were used set into channels on the side of the hill which were then pulled down the channels by ropes until they hit railway sleepers that triggered a huge explosion.
All who were part of the filming said it was a wonderful experience – including dozens of volunteers on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway where much of the film was shot. Many got to play extras – as did local schoolchildren – and most days there would be crowds gathered to watch the cinematic magic unfold.
It’s remarkable how much the film still keeps us gripped and enthrals new generations introduced to it. No wonder 50 years on it’s still so loved.