Wrapping up warm for TV comeback, it’s Dame Julie 4 years after cancer battle
JUDGING by the cosy coats and hot water bottles, Dame Julie Walters’ latest acting job is proving to be a labour of love. The actress, 72, was seen filming a drama series for Channel 4 on a bracing day at the seaside. Truelove is Dame Julie’s first major TV project for six years and since revealing she battled bowel cancer in 2018. She stars as Phil, a retired police chief who reconnects with her teenage sweetheart, Ken, played by American actor Clarke Peters, 70. After reuniting at a funeral, the pair and their friends – including characters played by Sue Johnston, 78 and Peter Egan, 75 – make a pact that if one of them falls ill they will engineer a dignified death.
Dame Julie and the cast were filming in a chilly Burnham-On-Sea in Somerset. She was also seen alongside her body double in identical clothes and with matching hair.
The star said: ‘I had basically withdrawn from acting and wasn’t sure that anything could tempt me back, but then I read Truelove. I adore Phil – smart, funny and hard-edged.’