From its very first filming contract in 1961, the Bluebell Railway has hosted countless film and TV productions. From The Woman in Black and The Importance of Being Earnest to Jeeves & Wooster and Downton Abbey, the Bluebell has provided an authentic and instantly recognisable backdrop. Here, Heidi Mowforth, who has been a volunteer at the railway for more than 40 years, shares her favourite memories.

NIGHT TRAIN TO MURDER, 1983

Night Train to Murder was a comedy film made by Thames TV, starring Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise alongside Fulton McKay (of Porridge fame). It was filmed during a bitterly cold February night using the Standard Class No. 75027, which was renumbered 5027.

It was the last project Morecambe and Wise worked on before Morecambe’s untimely death in 1984, and his illness was sadly evident that evening. Set in 1946, it was written as a pastiche of the works of various writers, including Agatha Christie and Edgar Wallace.

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, 1995

In 1995 the railway was the setting for a new film adaptation of The Wind in the Willows. Directed by ex-Python Terry Jones, who wanted to build up the brief railway scene in the book into an action-packed few minutes, the unit spent three weeks at the railway filming the scenes.

Toad was played by Jones with more than a hint of pantomime dame, Ratty by fellow ex-Python, Eric Idle, Mole by Steve Coogan, the engine driver by Bernard Hill and the pursuing prison warder by Don Henderson.

To simulate the speed that Toad managed to reach with the C Class, the film of the light engine was considerably sped up, then an explosion was set up at the crash site to simulate the sound of the engine coming off the road, and the cameras cut to the wreckage in the trees and Toad crawling out from underneath it.

JEEVES & WOOSTER, 1990s

In the early 1990s, LWT made 23 episodes based on PG Wodehouses’s Jeeves & Wooster novels, starring Stephen Fry as Jeeves and Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster.

Horsted Keynes featured in two episodes. In episode one, Horsted Keynes doubled up as Westcombe-on-Sea, the Cornish seaside town where Wooster has been urgently summoned by telegram at the behest of the formidable Aunt Agatha.

Jeeves and Wooster arrive on a train hauled by the U Class No. 1618, where they walk along the platform in the company of Horsted Keynes stationmaster Simon Baker, demoted to porter for the occasion and struggling along with their many items of luggage.

POIROT, 1980s and 1990s

David Suchet was asked to play Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot in 1988, and, after the success of that first series, the germ of an idea began to dawn. How would it be, he thought, if he performed in every Poirot story that Christie had written – 70 short stories and novels in all?

There were times, after some of the series, when LWT almost called it a day, but, in the end, they did make all the stories. Poirot, rather like that other fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, travelled all over the country solving cases by train, and passed through Horsted Keynes on many occasions.

THE GATHERING STORM, 2001

The film The Gathering Storm told the story of the years leading up to World War II at the time when Churchill was at the height of his power. Horsted Keynes station was the setting for a night scene in which Churchill (Albert Finney) alights from the train and tries in vain to communicate with his wife Clemmie (Vanessa Redgrave), who is still inside the carriage and resolutely refusing to acknowledge him as the train pulls away.

On this occasion, Horsted Keynes played itself. The director had decided that Churchill, travelling via East Grinstead, would have probably broken his journey at Horsted Keynes to visit Harold MacMillan in Birch Grove, his country seat just up the road.

DOWNTON ABBEY, 2000s

Downton Abbey quickly became the runaway Sunday night TV success of the early 2000s. For the series, Horsted Keynes became Downton station, the scene of many meetings and partings over the ensuing years.

The most famous of the railway scenes occurs in the second series and depicts Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), the new heir to Downton, departing for the Front to be seen off by Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery). Although they later marry, at this time they have broken off an ‘understanding’ and Matthew is engaged to Lavinia Swire.

The parting was restrained but heavy with hidden meaning: Lady Mary gives Matthew her lucky mascot, an old toy dog, before he boards the train and disappears to almost certain death.

In interviews, Dockery admits that Horsted Keynes station has a special place in her heart because of the scenes she filmed there. Writer Julian Fellowes also agrees that the ‘Matthew off to war’ scene was one of the most important in the series.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, 2001

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is as popular in the 21st century as it was in the 19th, with the part of Lady Bracknell and her famous ‘A handbag?’ line still much coveted by actresses of a certain age.

In 2001 it was made into a feature film by Important Films, and Horsted Keynes played the part of Victoria station. The story centres around a foundling baby discovered in a handbag on that particular station… ‘on the Brighton side’, of course.

Dame Judi Dench played Lady Bracknell, with Colin Firth as Jack Worthing (Ernest). There was also a special guest appearance by former BR chairman Sir Peter Parker as a humble railway porter. The 01 No. 65, with ‘Metropolitan Railway’ emblazoned on its tender sides, hauled a vintage train that would have been an unusual sight at Victoria, even in those days.

THE WOMAN IN BLACK, 2010

In October 2010 a location film unit from Hammer Horror spent several nights at the railway filming scenes for a cinema version of Susan Hill’s famous ghost story, The Woman in Black, which had been a successful West End play.

The plot follows a recently widowed lawyer called Arthur Kipps who travels to the remote village of Crythin Gifford where he discovers that the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman (the Woman in Black) is terrorising the locals.

The film starred Daniel Radcliffe as Kipps (his first movie role since leaving Hogwarts) and Ciarán Hinds as local landowner Samuel Daily, both of whom had scenes at the railway.

It took the unit several days to dress Horsted Keynes station as Crythin Gifford station and all the filming took place at night. Some scenes were also shot at Sheffield Park, posing as Homerby station, where Arthur begins his journey to the wilds of Crythin Gifford.

News soon reached the sleepy village of Horsted Keynes that Harry Potter was in town. The children of Elm Class at St Giles’ School wrote a letter to Radcliffe and included a self-portrait by each child. In a brief interval between takes, Radcliffe was kind enough to write back to them, and included a portrait of himself as Harry Potter. Both the original letter and its reply occupied pride of place in the school entrance for parents’ evening that week.

• Line to the Stars: Sixty Years of Filming at the Bluebell Railway by Heidi Mowforth is published by Amberley Publishing at £16.99.