Harry Potter actor stars alongside Dame Judi Dench 60 years after meeting at York theatre group

Harry Potter actor David Bradley said "it was bucket list almost completed" to appear in the same film as Dame Judi Dench 60 years after they met at an amateur dramatic group in York.

Bradley and Dame Dench, who were both born in the North Yorkshire city, both star in the new film Allelujah set in a Yorkshire hospital.

The film tells the story of a geriatric ward in Wakefield which is threatened with closure and the hospital's decision to fight back.

Dame Dench, who plays a patient in the film, said: "David and I have just discovered that we have worked together years and years ago in the York cycle of Mystery Plays.

The Oscar-winning actress, who is from Heworth, said she and all her family were involved in the productions when Bradley took part.

She said: "We go back for a long, long time and have never actually had the opportunity to work together properly before."

Bradley, who appeared as Argus Filch in the Harry Potter series and who has won a BAFTA for his role in Broadchurch, said: "it was bucket list almost completed I'd say."

Although the pair don't share a scene in the upcoming film, the actor said: "It's always been one of my ambitions to share the screen with her.

"I've always been in awe, I've seen so much of Judi's work."

Reflecting back on their roots on the York acting scene, he said: "I knew Judi's family through working with her parents and her elder brother was our family doctor."

Allelujah is a film adaptation of Leeds' playwright Alan Bennett's play of the same name and features an all star cast including Dench, Bradley and Jennifer Saunders.

On perfecting her Yorkshire accent for the film, Saunders said she was "very nervous" but said the film is "about Yorkshire as much as anything really."

Saunders said: "You just say the words Alan Bennett and you imagine it's going to be Yorkshire.

"I think the rhythms of the ways he writes and the ways Heidi [Thomas] has adapted it, it couldn't be anywhere else really."

Bally Gill, plays a doctor in the film and said he was "tremendously nervous" to work alongside some of the country's biggest actors and "national treasures."

Gill said: "It is a responsibility to be able to portray these wonderful doctors, nurses and medical professionals and give them a voice that we don't get to hear."

Allelujah is out in cinemas on 17 March.

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