| The Railway Children | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Directed by | Catherine Morshead |
| Produced by | Charles Elton |
| Written by | E. Nesbit (novel) Simon Nye (screenplay) |
| Starring | Jack Blumenau Clare Thomas Jemima Rooper Jenny Agutter Michael Kitchen David Bamber Gregor Fisher Richard Attenborough |
| Editing by | Don Fairservice |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Original channel | Carlton Television |
| Release date | 23 April 2000 |
| Running time | 108 minutes |
The Railway Children is a 2000 drama television film based on the novel by E. Nesbit. It was broadcast for the first time in the United Kingdom on 23 April 2000.
Contents |
Roberta (Bobbie), Peter and Phyllis live a comfortable and carefree upper middle-class life in London with their parents. But when their father (Michael Kitchen), a senior civil servant, is arrested on a charge of treason and found guilty, they are forced to move with their mother to "Three Chimneys", a cold and rundown cottage in the country near a railway.
Whilst Mother (Jenny Agutter) tries to make a meagre living writing stories and poems she hopes magazines and newspapers will publish, the children seek amusement by watching the trains on the nearby railway line (the fictional Great Northern and Southern Railway) and waving to the passengers. They become friendly with Perks, the cheerful station porter, but feel the wrath of the Stationmaster when Peter is caught trying to steal coal to heat the house.
They become friends with the Old Gentleman (whose name is never revealed) who regularly takes the 9:15 down train. They ask him to assist them with food and medicine when Mother falls ill. He is happy to do so, although Mother is angry and embarrassed.
The children save the lives of passengers on a train by alerting them of a landslide; they give shelter to a Russian dissident, Mr Szczepansky, and help to unite him with his family. They rescue Jim, the grandson of the Old Gentleman, who is injured whilst participating in a paper chase.
Bobbie eventually discovers the truth of her father's absence, despite Mother's efforts to shield them from it, and appeals to the Old Gentleman for his help. A Director of the railway company with influential friends, he is able to help prove their father's innocence. The family is reunited.
A friendship and possible future romance between Jim and Bobbie is hinted at.
The area of England to which the family move is not specified, but the railway scenes were filmed on the Bluebell Line.
Much of the advance publicity for the film focused on the casting of Jenny Agutter as Mother, thirty years on from her portrayal of elder daughter Bobbie in the 1970 film version.
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