Lionel Jeffrries RIP

We’ve just heard on the radio that Lionel Jeffries has died, aged 83.


In 1955 he appeared in The Colditz Story and in the science-fiction classic The Quatermass Experiment.  He will also be remembered for may other appearances, including  Blue Murder at St Trinian’s and The Wrong Arm of the Law.
For a lot of people he will be best known for his role as Grandpa Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in which he was actually six months younger than his supposed son, Dick Van Dyke, who played Caractacus Potts.


I remember him best for his direction of the 1970 adaptation of E, Nesbitt’s classic The Railway Children, the film with the line “My Daddy, oh, my Daddy”  delivered by Jenny Agutter, aged 17 at the time,  it still gives me a lump in my throat when I hear it – despite watching the film with 2 generations of descendants and other assorted other young people.
I might be biased by the fact that The Railway Children was filmed on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway near here and that we actually knew one of the locals who was involved.
Keighley and Worth Valley Railway are preparing to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Railway Children and more can be found here.


I wanted to confirm that I was not passing on a rumour and 'googled' his death, producing over 20,000 results already.