A STATION worker of more than 40 years has swapped railway lines for lines in a movie script after filming scenes with actor Timothy Spall.

Graham Robinson, who has worked on the railway since 1963, will appear on the big screen alongside the Harry Potter actor in his upcoming flick Away.

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The 67-year-old great-grandfather, from Hudson Street in Burnley, was even given a speaking role after being asked to appear as an extra.

He said: “I spoke to Timothy a little bit but not a lot because he was busy, obviously.

“I’m a fan of his because Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was one of the best programmes on TV in my eyes.

“I even brought my boxset in for him to sign, which he did.

“I told Timothy when I’m famous I can sign an autograph for him.”

Graham’s role in the film sees him serving a one-way ticket to Timothy’s co-star Juno Temple, of The Dark Knight Rises and Maleficent fame.

Away, directed by double Bafta and Emmy award winner David Blair, is set in Blackpool and is centred on two kindred spirits who form an unlikely friendship.

Two brief scenes are believed to have been filmed at Blackburn station on Monday afternoon, as well as shots on the short train ride to the seaside resort.

Graham said: “What I was doing is just what I have done in the past, but it got me out of customer services for a bit.

“I said, ‘If you want, I will do it.

“I’m just going to write my Oscars speech.”

Produced by Gateway Films, the film started shooting on March 2 and is due to be released later this year, according to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

Producer Terry Stone, of Gateway Films, said: “Away is an incredible story that will touch audiences around the world.

“The cast members are superb and bring together the right mix of intensity, intelligence and gravitas required to tell this story.”

  • Timothy Spall was born in Battersea, London. After the National Youth Theatre and RADA he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and stayed for two years performing in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Cymbeline, The Three Sisters and Nicholas Nickleby.

In the early 1980s he moved into TV roles with Mike Leigh’s Home Sweet Home and Auf Wiedersehen Pet, and later had his own drama series Frank Stubbs Promotes.

With Leigh, Spall appeared in a number of award-winning features, particularly Life Is Sweet (1990) and Secrets & Lies (1996), for which he earned a BAFTA Award nomination, and the Gilbert & Sullivan biopic Topsy-Turvy (1999).

More recently he has earned praise for the film Mr Turner which came out last year.

A chronic illness curtailed his momentum in the mid-90s, coming back resourcefully on stage and TV. On a roll recently with more of his odd characterizations he lent his voice to the popular animated feature Chicken Run (2000) and appeared in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) as Peter Pettigrew, and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) as Mr. Poe.