Dame Julie Walters on Terry Pratchett’s The Abominable Snow Baby and how her life has changed after cancer treatment

“Very kindly, people still send me scripts,” notes the Bafta award winner, who is best known for her work with Victoria Wood, as well as Billy Elliot, Educating Rita, Mamma Mia, and the Harry Potter films.

“But I don’t want to get up at five o’clock in the morning, get home at seven at night, learn my lines, wash my hair, have something to eat, try and sleep sometime. Nothing yet has made me want to do that.”

Although she is said to have made an exception for Mamma Mia 3 which is in production.

What Dame Julie does like doing is voiceover work, as “it’s not stressful, generally speaking, and it’s nice to be able to do it from home”.

Indeed, that’s what she did for her latest project – Channel 4’s Christmas Day animation, Terry Pratchett’s The Abominable Snow Baby, in which she voices fearless Granny.

Based on a best-selling short story by Sir Terry, it’s a heart-warming, humorous, half-hour special perfect for all the family, and narrated by Homeland actor David Harewood.

When snow covers a lovely, small English town, an enormous Abominable Snow Baby turns up, frightening locals and sending the town into disarray.

Ready to save the day is 98-year-old Granny and her grandson Albert (played by David Copperfield’s Hugh Dancy, 46). Ignoring what other people fear, the pair show love and affection to the 14-foot Snow Baby.

“It’s about inclusivity, it’s about community,” Dame Julie says. “It’s about friendship, love, wisdom, kindness, and empathy.”

And why did the character feel right for her? “First of all, she’s 98; she is the oldest character I’ve ever been asked to play. And the fact that she is indomitable, that she has huge optimism and energy. And she’s a woman, and she’s the centre of this piece, and she’s the hero of it, so that, in itself, is fantastic.”

She continues: “She has this lovely relationship with a boy, Albert, and that’s unusual as well. “I loved the message that it was giving out, acceptance and caring. We’ve been through such a divisive time and this actually is bringing people together, and it’s a lovely piece for people to watch at Christmas.”

She has played old people since her twenties and has said that came from observing her own grandmother and “being fascinated by the way people age, what they become, how their bodies and faces and voices change”. The granny in The Abominable Snow Baby is not based on her grandmother though.

Discussing the themes in the show further, Dame Julie agrees that it feels like a particularly resonant time for this programme, what with the Covid-19 pandemic and how the idea of community was brought to the forefront for many of us.

“Before the pandemic, community is something that seemed to be disappearing, and it’s really important,” she says. “I think the pandemic, in many ways, has made people value connection more than they did.

“I’ve noticed people want to talk more than they did. When I go for a walk and meet someone, they’re wanting connection. We need it as human beings. We’re not meant to be hermits; we’re not meant to be isolated.

“That sense of community is very important – it has always been important to me.”

Dame Julie reveals how Massimo Fenati, the director of The Abominable Snow Baby, was in Rome, the producer was in London, and the engineer was in Plymouth, while she was recording from her house in Sussex, which she’s been doing for the last three years.

She lives on an organic farm with husband Grant Roffey, who was a patrol man for the AA, and their relationship began after a whirlwind romance. The couple have a daughter named Maisie Mae Roffey but did not marry until they went to New York City to do so in 1997.

Dame Julie says the voice is always the first thing she wants to find in a character “because it says everything about the person”, she says.

“From that comes the way they stand and everything else. So the voice has always been really important. And what’s lovely with the animation is that someone else draws you, someone else does all of that, and that’s really fascinating.”

Dame Julie will definitely be watching the animation at Christmas with her family. “We’ll sit in front of the fire and open presents in the morning. We have turkeys on our farm so we’ll cook one of those, and that’s about it. We eat late because it’s never ready on time.”

She confides that she didn’t like to see her work on screen. “You’re not used to seeing yourself like that, animated and talking unguarded, up to a point.

“Obviously, there’s a camera there – but you’re still unguarded in many ways. So, at first, I thought, ‘I don’t like this very much’. But you get used to it.

“I can be very critical and go, ‘Oh dear, I don’t like the way I did that,’ ‘Oh God, what are you doing there?’ “But obviously, with an animation, that’s not the same. You’re watching someone else’s depiction.”

She says she currently has no plans when it comes to future roles. The 71-year-old was diagnosed with cancer in 2018.

She went to the doctors about symptoms such as stomach pain, heartburn and vomiting. At the time she was working on the film The Secret Garden alongside Colin Firth, and some of her scenes later had to be cut because of her cancer diagnosis.

She was referred to a gastric surgeon and a CT scan found two primary tumours in her large intestine. Nearly 12 inches of her colon was removed.

She was told she had stage three cancer, which is one level below the most serious categorisation and means it had spread into nearby lymph nodes.

But following surgery and chemotherapy, was given the all-clear. According to Bowel Cancer UK, the disease is the fourth most common cancer and second biggest cancer killer in the country. However, it is treatable and curable, especially if diagnosed early.

What Dame Julie has been through in the last few years definitely seems to have made her think differently about life.

“I had a big series lined up when I was diagnosed, and the first feeling I felt, which was really odd, was relief that I didn’t have to do it,” she confides.

“I obviously wasn’t well. So, it gave me an excuse to get off the treadmill, and that’s been great, really.”

Terry Pratchett’s The Abominable Snow Baby will air on Channel 4 on Christmas Day.