DAME JULIE WALTERS Smelling the roses

In a candid interview from her UK farmhouse, British star Julie Walters tells Juliet Rieden about starring in a magical new movie adaptation of The Secret Garden, how the story resonated with her own childhood, and the health scare during filming that made her reassess her life

- Juliet Rieden

In a candid interview from her UK farmhouse, British star Julie Walters tells Juliet Rieden about starring in a magical new movie adaptation of The Secret Garden, how the story resonated with her own childhood, and the health scare during filming that made her reassess her life.

Since bestselling British author Frances Hodgson Burnett first wrote The Secret Garden in 1911, it has been adapted into four TV series, four films, a bunch of plays and a Broadway musical, so it’s fair to say this is a story with a universal message.

For Dame Julie Walters, co-star of the latest version – a mesmerising adaptation combining eye-candy effects conjuring a magical realism of blooming flowers and verdant butterfly-filled woodlands with filming in some of Britain’s most beguiling gardens – the film couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time.

“I read the book as a child, so knew it well and loved it. The themes of loss and friendship, and then regeneration and light at the end of the tunnel, I think will always resonate. It’s pertinent now because in the film they’re coming out of a particularly dark period, showing that there’s hope and light, and I think hopefully we will be [coming out of a dark period] too,” says Julie, who during filming went through some challenging times of her own – more on that later.