For the first part of Mike Martin’s interview with Jenny Agutter, click here.
Say the words The Railway Children to an adult and you will usually get the response aaah, sweet film, but watch the digitally remastered version and you might see a different film says its star Jenny Agutter.
The great British actress, who plays older sibling Bobbie Waterbury in the Childrens classic, says watching the cleaned-up film again even surprised her: Its a slightly darker film than the one we all have in our heads I think thats what makes it a great film. Its very honest, harsh even sometimes.
Explaining how she had forgotten certain scenes Agutter explained: The scene where us children are collecting for Mr Perks for a present, and he perceives it as charity, which he cannot abide thats quite a tough, hard scene. He cannot abide the thought of these children thinking of him in that way. Of course (director) Lionel Jeffries is such a genius he manages to sneak in some humour when we are out collecting things we ask one man, who replies Perks? Cant stand the man!
The Railway Children tells of a family who are moved out of their comfortable Edwardian home to go and live in the country when the head of the family mysteriously disappears. There are some scenes that still shock Agutter: The maid we have a horrible maid, who slaps my brother round the face its unpleasant stuff, but you need that to feel for these children. There is also Aunt Emma, who is scary but in a more comedy way.
The remastered edition looks better than ever, surprising given the films limited budget says Agutter: We had a great cinematographer in Arrthur Ibbetson, he should have won a Bafta. We had a budget of £350,000 which was tiny, but he managed to make it look so good. The costumes too were just lovely.
The timeless appeal of the story has a simple key says Agutter: Its really about the loss of innocence children losing their child-like quality. My character in the film is absolutely about this, theres a real journey there, she is forced to behave like an adult even though she is really just a child.
A little-known fact is that Agutter had already played the part, in a TV series which came out before the film and the rehearsal proved useful. The film is much better than the TV series, she insisted, Because the film was the vision of one man Lionel. He wrote a tight script and directed it, he made the film he wanted to make. So many times you get interference and the film ends up being ok but not great, but here it was his film, very much so.
Jeffries created a great atmosphere on set and that comes across said Agutter: It always comes from the top, and he let me and Sally Thomsett be ourselves, we got on really well. Even though she is older than me she is like a child, and I acted like her older sister, so it really worked I think. Its such a shame Lionel isnt here to meet up with us all again.
The Railway Children: 40th Anniversary was out in cinemas 2nd April, and on DVD and Blu-ray 3rd May.