The wonder of Julie Walters: Why nursing's loss has been the acting world's gain

IF JULIE WALTERS is in a film the chances are it will be a box office success. The versatile actress has had starring roles in many of the most successful British films of the past 30 years including Educating Rita, which made her name back in 1983, Calendar Girls, Billy Elliot and seven of the eight Harry Potter movies.

Julie Walters says that unless a script really appeals then she would rather bake cakes Julie Walters says that unless a script really appeals then she would rather bake cakes [REX]

She has also enjoyed success in dramatic roles (playing the late politician Mo Mowlam in Channel 4's Mo springs to mind, as does her portrayal as a euthanasia patient in A Short Stay In Switzerland).

But Julie, 63, has never lost touch with her comedy roots, including her headlining time with Victoria Wood, nor is she immune to immersing herself in humorous escapism, even if it's just the wrong side of faintly ridiculous - think Mamma Mia! in which she played the Brummie sidekick to Meryl Streep and had to wear a false bottom "so I looked more rounded".

Or there's her latest starring role as outrageous Nan in The Harry Hill Movie, which is released on December 20. The comedy follows the pair on a holiday to Blackpool after the comic learns his hamster only has a week to live.

"I've played old women all my life, even when I was young. At least now I'm getting to be the right age," says Julie, who has twice been Oscar nominated. "I love Harry Hill anyway so when I got the call asking if I wanted to read the script I said, 'Yes!' and loved it."

These days only certain parts can tempt her from her "real life" in West Sussex where she lives on a 300-acre organic farm near Horsham with her husband Grant Roffey and their daughter Maisie, 25. The farm is located two miles down an unmade forestry track and is surrounded by unspoiled ancient woodland.

It's a long way from her working-class roots in a Birmingham suburb where there was no running hot water. On Sunday night the couple were in London where Julie was honoured with a lifetime achievement prize at the British Independent Film Awards.

Julie Walters, box office, success, film, actress, starring roles, british films, harry potter, rita, calendar girls, billy elliot, Julie with Victoria Wood for BBC One show Midlife Christmas [BBC]

BUT unless a script really appeals she would far rather bake cakes, talk shop with Grant, who does all his own butchering, and go for long walks with her dog. She also loves to sit at her kitchen table with only the sound of birdsong outside for company, sipping buckets of green tea. This is her chosen dividend for success and she relishes the anonymity that it gives her.

"I love being on the farm with Grant. When I hit 60 I did think about giving up acting for good and took a break for about a year. But then a script lands on the doormat."

Tellingly, while the website for Grant's popular organic meat business - including upmarket Christmas turkeys - features links to photos of him and Maisie with a variety of animals, there is not a single image of Mrs Roffey to be seen. This is very much the way Julie Walters likes it.

"I never really imagined myself being married to a farmer," she says. "Actually Grant wasn't a farmer when I met him. He worked for the AA. People always say, 'Oh, you met him at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting?' No, he worked for the Automobile Association.

I met him in a bar."

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What happened was that, flushed with her sudden success in the mid-Eighties while she was in her 30s, Julie was going mildly off the rails ("I did get a bit wild in those early days - photos of me falling down drunk").

While enjoying an evening in a bar in West London full of "hooray Henry" types she suddenly bawled: "Does anyone here vote Labour?" Grant stuck up his hand, she invited him back to fix her broken washing machine and they were soon living together. Shortly afterwards the AA man had also taught Miss Walters to drive.

She fully appreciates the normality of life with Grant. He has given her stability and a family life. He has also been happy to play second fiddle to her but hasn't done too badly out of the deal either.

It's all a very long way from her childhood, growing up firmly under the influence of a difficult Irish immigrant mother who worked as a postal clerk and for whom nothing was ever quite good enough and who remained ever vigilant against disaster.

She was particularly worried about her only daughter Julie (she has two elder brothers) who had to leave her convent school early for unspecified "high jinks". She says: "I'd always wanted to act.

Sadly "I'd always wanted to act. Sadly the nuns at my school had no time for my dreams and when I left I started nurse's training because it's what mum wanted. But halfway through I thought, 'I can't do this'. My then boyfriend was in Manchester and said there was a drama course at the poly. That was it. Up I went."

She says her brothers and builder father had to stand between her and her mother when she broke the news that she planned to become an actress. "It's not like we came from a middle-class family where people did amateur dramatics. She was just frightened."

Julie Walters, box office, success, film, actress, starring roles, british films, harry potter, rita, calendar girls, billy elliot, Julie with Grant and Maisie after receiving her OBE in 1999 [REX]

Surprisingly her mother had always warned her off marriage, saying: "A husband can be a millstone around your neck."

And Julie admits: "It was probably the best advice I received until I met Grant."

Perhaps that was why, though they had been together since 1986, she and Grant did not tie the knot until 1997.

They had already been through a lot following their daughter's battle with leukaemia in 1990 when Maisie was two, an agonising time that lasted until she was four.

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This was an experience Julie declined to write about in her 2008 autobiography, despite a staggering £1.6million advance, out of respect for Maisie. "Because Maisie's a private person - it's not her fault I'm her mum. It's hard enough for people in life coping with their identity without me."

Finally marriage was a simple affair. The couple went off to New York, filled out all the forms, walked to a wedding chapel in Little Italy, had a meal afterwards and then went on the Circle Line boat trip around Manhattan. "It seemed to capture the mood."

The couple remain cosy together. Julie has never hankered for the bright lights of Hollywood and anything after 10pm is considered a late night. She's also sleeping better. For years she suffered from night terrors.

"Hypnotherapy and acupuncture finally cured me but God knows how Grant coped. I'd wake up every night screaming, 'Who are you? Leave me alone!' I bet they didn't tell him about that when he was working for the AA."

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