Railway Child grows up

5:44pm Tuesday 13th March 2001

Most famous for being a Railway Child and an American werewolf's girlfriend, actress Jenny Agutter will be appearing at the Wyllyotts Centre in Potters Bar this weekend. HUGH CHRISTOPHER reports:

For somebody perceived as the definitive clean-cut English rose, Jenny Agutter has a lot of muck surrounding her good name.

Her film roles may have emphasised the actress's sexiness to some degree.

But the internet has spawned an unprecedented number of web sites (around 500 according to my search engine) devoted to a seemingly universal male lust for the actress, now 48, unleashed since she lit up the screen in 1981 as nurse Alex Pryce in An American Werewolf In London.

"Oh really?" says Jenny coyly, when informed of her web stardom.

"It's very hard to see oneself in the way others do. I suppose the role of Alex was quite sexy in that she was a nurse, and nurses are pretty sexy, aren't they?

"And, unlike most films, she was a strong female character who wasn't a victim. She just happened to have a boyfriend who was a werewolf."

An American Werewolf... is light years away from her best known role in 1970 as Bobbie in The Railway Children.

Her glowing innocence in front of the camera was further used in Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout, released a year later to a storm of controversy not least because it featured a fresh-faced and naked Jenny aged just 16.

"Nic originally wanted me for the role aged 14, but we decided against it. He wanted it be like the painting Age Of Consent which shows a girl alone, swimming naked. To look a particular way not sexual, but innocent.

"I wasn't someone who would happily take their clothes off. We just wanted it to be done as simply as possible. After we had filmed the scene, the entire camera crew stripped off and jumped in too, so I would feel more comfortable."

As a result of an upbringing that was spent largely spent on film sets, Jenny achieved great things in a short period of time.

By the age of 20, she had appeared with Sir John Gielgud at the National Theatre but missed out on the more everyday aspects of growing up.

"It's hard to know what it would be like. I've never had another job but as an actress," said Jenny.

Her teenage years will be one of the themes touched when Jenny takes the stage at The Wyllyotts Centre in Potters Bar to give a collection of readings on the subject of mothers and daughters.

Future projects include revisiting The Railway Children once more in a biopic of its author E Nesbitt.

But life is moving at a slower pace for Jenny nowadays. For someone who has spent a lifetime in the glare of spotlights and fans alike it is, perhaps, a welcome break.

Mothers And Daughters starts at 7.30pm on Sunday at The Wyllyotts Centre, Darkes Lane, Potters Bar. Tickets are available at £12 by calling 01707 645005.