My Seaside Express

Harry Potter star Julie Walters on boarding the real-life Hogwarts express for her new travelogue.

- Ian Macewan

NEW TRAVELOGUE

Coastal Railways with Julie Walters

SUNDAY / C4 / 8.00PM

As Mrs Weasley in the Harry Potter movies, Dame Julie Walters was a frequent visitor to London’s Kings Cross train station, where she would wave off Ron, Fred, George and Ginny at Platform 9¾ as they boarded the Hogwarts Express at the start of each new term at the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And in her latest TV outing, Julie finally gets the chance to travel on the iconic steam train herself!

The four-part C4 series, Coastal Railways with Julie Walters, sees the much-loved actress travel along different picturesque coastal railways, stopping along the way to meet the locals.

In this week’s first episode she finds herself on The Jacobite steam train service, aka the Hogwarts Express! We caught up with Julie, 67, to find out more…

Julie, what are you getting up to in this new series?

I’m going on a journey around Britain by train. Although I love holidaying in the UK, I feel as though I haven’t explored it enough. It was also a way of exploring the coastal communities that are built around the railway.