Shropshire Star

Jenny Agutter to reprise role for The Railway Children sequel 50 years later

The Railway Children Return will also star Sheridan Smith and Sir Tom Courtenay.

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Jenny Agutter

Jenny Agutter will reprise her role as Roberta Waterbury in a sequel to The Railway Children more than 50 years after the original film.

The Call The Midwife star, 68, will be joined by Sheridan Smith and Sir Tom Courtenay for The Railway Children Return.

Principal photography will begin in the UK on May 10.

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 originally published in 1906.

The Railway Children (StudioCanal/PA)

The film, released in 1970, also starred Dinah Sheridan, Bernard Cribbins, Sally Thomsett and Gary Warren.

Agutter was still a teenager when she shot to fame as the oldest of the Waterbury children, who stopped a steam train from hitting an injured boy by waving her red petticoats.

The new film will be directed by Morgan Matthew and will be shot in key locations from the original film, including Oakworth Station in Haworth, West Yorkshire, and the nearby Bronte Parsonage.

The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway from the original film will also feature.

Entertainment – Film – The Railway Children – Oakworth – 1970
Jenny Agutter (centre) with Sally Thomsett and Bernard Cribbins (PA)

The sequel will feature a new generation of children who are evacuated to a Yorkshire village during the Second World War, where they encounter a young soldier who is also far from home.

The restored Blu-ray and DVD of The Railway Children includes a retrospective documentary and interviews with Agutter, Cribbins and Thomsett.

The Railway Children Return will be released in UK cinemas on April 1 2022.

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