JENNY’S BACK ON TRACK
PICTURE EXCLUSIVE: Railway Children sequel sees star, 68, reprise role over 50 years later
SHE famously flagged down a steam train with a red petticoat as a teenager.
But there were no undergarments in sight as Jenny Agutter reprised her role as Bobbie Waterbury in The Railway Children sequel.
The Call The Midwife actress, 68, was pictured herding a group of schoolchildren with her co-star Sheridan Smith in the first shots of the star from the set of the upcoming film.
The pair were sporting victory rolls, with Miss Agutter in wide leg trousers and a beret as she smiled for the cameras between takes. Miss Smith, 9, was wearing a 1940s get-up complete with brown brogues and a smart grey skirt. The Railway Children told the story of a mother and her three children who move to the Yorkshire countryside after their father is falsely imprisoned.
The book, written by E Nesbit, was published in 1906. The film, released in 1970, also starred Dinah Sheridan, Bernard Cribbins, Sally Thomsett and Gary Warren. It was nominated for three Baftas. Miss Agutter was still a teenager when she found fame as the oldest of the Waterbury children in a 1968 BBC adaptation and the 1970 film version, which saw Miss Thomsett and Gary Warren play her siblings Phyllis and Peter.
The Railway Children Return, directed by Bafta-winner Morgan Matthews, follows a group of evacuated children who encounter a young soldier in a Yorkshire village during the Second World War.
Tom Courtenay, 84, also stars. The film will feature key locations from the original, including Oakworth Station, the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, the Bronte Parsonage and Haworth. The Railway Children Return is due for UK cinema release on April 1, 2022.