Julie Wilson Nimmo ‘never expected’ to return to Balamory over two decades later

Julie Wilson Nimmo has said she “never expected” to return to Balamory more than two decades after it first aired.

The award-winning TV show makes its return to CBeebies on Monday with a revamp, along with many characters from its original 2002 series including Nimmo, who stars as nursery school teacher Miss Hoolie.

The Scottish actress, 53, has expressed her excitement for the new series, and said that she and co-star Andrew Agnew initially could not believe the show was making a return.

While appearing on BBC Breakfast, Nimmo said: “We were so lucky the first time around, and as actors to get to get to go back to a show that you loved so much… I mean, that’s the lovely thing about the return.

“We never expected that at all.

“I told Andrew and he thought I was winding him up, because we’ve obviously remained friends.

“Loads of the original cast remain friends.

Scottish actor Agnew, who plays friendly local police officer Pc Plum in the show, called the return “really exciting”.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the 49-year-old said: “Even when we heard that it was coming back (…) we didn’t know if we’re going to be involved.

But the fact that they are bringing it back for the kids, it was just amazing.

“It was really exciting.

Getting the police uniform back on again, and the fact that kids were going to get to see it – that was the main thing.”
Nimmo, who was born in East Kilbride, spoke highly of the popular children’s show and said: “I keep thinking, as a parent myself, it’s just a nice, innocent time, isn’t it?

“You want them to enjoy that and not take themselves so seriously and have a laugh and all of that.

“That’s what Balamory feels like.

It’s a big, warm blanket.”
She added: “Having the new characters has added such a lovely new energy to (the show), and the kids are so excited when we’ve been filming with them all as well.”
Danielle Jam is among the new additions to the Balamory cast and will star as Ava Potts, the daughter of Archie the inventor, who featured in the original series and was played by actor and comedian Miles Jupp.

Jam hailed the show as “very whimsical and silly and fun”, and told the breakfast programme: “I’m coming into this as such a fan, and I’m still honoured to even be in this world.

“It’s so exciting just to be part of this world, I loved (the show) as a kid.”
She called being on set a “pinch-me moment”, adding: “I was just like, ‘this can’t be real’.

“I didn’t think that my life or my career would lead up to being a part of something that was so special to me as a kid.

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“It’s just such a nice full circle thing.”
In 2022 the BBC celebrated 20 years of Balamory by uploading episodes of the programme to BBC iPlayer.

The two new series will consist of 10 episodes each, with the first episode available to watch on CBeebies and BBC iPlayer from 5pm on Monday.