HomeArts & LifestyleJeremy Swift and Caroline Harker in The Railway Children

Jeremy Swift and Caroline Harker in The Railway Children

Jeremy Swift will play Mr Perks and Caroline Harker will be recreating the role of Mother in the Olivier Award-winning production of Mike Kenny’s stage adaptation of E. Nesbit’s novel The Railway Children when it returns to London on 16th December 2014 in its new home, the King’s Cross Theatre. The production is currently booking until 1 March 2015.

Jeremy Swift can currently be seen starring as Maggie Smith’s butler, Spratt, in Downton Abbey, and he will return to the small screen in January in the new series of Foyle’s War, playing the regular role of Glenvil Harris. Also in 2015, he will be seen in the new Wachowski siblings’ movie, Jupiter Ascending.

Caroline Harker was in the original cast of The Railway Children as Mother at Waterloo Station in 2010. On screen, she was WPC Hazel Wallace in A Touch of Frost, Vicky in the BBC series Holding On, Mrs Fitzherbert in The Madness of King George and Celia Brooke in the BBC series Middlemarch.

Also in the cast will be Louise Calf as Phyllis, Clare Corbett as Mrs Perks, Jack Hardwick as Peter, Mark Hawkins as Jim/District Super, Connie Hyde as Mrs Viney, Andrew Loudon as Father/Doctor, Serena Manteghi as Bobbie, Blair Plant as Schepansky and Moray Treadwell as the Old Gentleman, plus a children’s ensemble made up of four teams of ten children aged between 9 and 15.

A purpose built 1,000-seat theatre, complete with a railway track and platforms, and with a state of the art heating system, will be specially created on the site on King’s Boulevard, behind King’s Cross Station, which has been loaned to the production for the duration of the run by Google. The York Theatre Royal production, which is in association with the National Railway Museum, will once again feature a live steam locomotive and a vintage carriage, originally built in 1906, the same year as E. Nesbit’s novel was published.

There will be a pop-up box office situated on the concourse at King’s Cross Station from Wednesday 12 November, open daily from 8am until the theatre has opened.

The production at King’s Cross Theatre is in support of the Railway Children Charity that aims to help homeless and runaway children throughout the world, with £1 per ticket donated to the charity.

For more information and to book, see www.railwaychildrenlondon.com.

Greg Jameson
Greg Jameson
Book editor, with an interest in cult TV.

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