The Railway Children (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Railway Children | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Lionel Jeffries |
| Produced by | Robert Lynn |
| Written by | Lionel Jeffries |
| Narrated by | Jenny Agutter |
| Starring | Jenny Agutter Gary Warren Sally Thomsett Dinah Sheridan Bernard Cribbins William Mervyn Ann Lancaster |
| Music by | Johnny Douglas |
| Cinematography | Arthur Ibbetson |
| Editing by | Teddy Darvas |
| Distributed by | MGM-EMI (UK) Universal Pictures (USA) |
| Release date(s) | 21 December 1970 |
| Running time | 109 minutes |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Railway Children is a 1970 British film based on the novel by E. Nesbit.
After the successful BBC dramatisation of the novel in the 1960s, the film rights were bought by Lionel Jeffries. It was his directorial debut, and he also wrote the screenplay.
It starred Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett and Bernard Cribbins. Unusually, the entire cast of the film break the fourth wall and perform a curtain call as the credits roll. Also a voice can be heard shouting "Thank you Mr Forbes" as an acknowledgement to Bryan Forbes who put up a security for the film to be completed.
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[edit] Awards and acknowledgement
- In 1999, the BFI named it as 66th in its list of the Top 100 British films.
- In 2004 the magazine Total Film named it the 46th greatest British film of all time.
[edit] Great Northern and Southern Railway
The Great Northern and Southern Railway was the name of the railway in this film. In real life the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and its station at Oakworth provided the backdrop for the film.There were some locomotives that were used during the this film and the later TV film.
| Film year | Locomotives Used |
|---|---|
| 1970 | MSC67, 5775, 52044, 4744 (69523) |
| 1999 | 673 Maude |
All of the locomotives have survived. They were painted in brown like the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, green like the Great Western Railway or black like British Railways.
[edit] Merchandise
Hornby Railways produced a 00 Gauge train set of the train from the movie, and is nowadays as all modellers know, 'chuffing rare.' It had a tank locomotive in GN&SR livery with Synchrosmoke, two period coaches, an oval of track and a station. Children (small boys in particular) loved the set, and is highly sought after on eBay.
