The Railway Children (film)

Infobox Film
name = The Railway Children


image_size =
caption = DVD cover
director = Lionel Jeffries
producer = Robert Lynn
writer = Lionel Jeffries
narrator = Jenny Agutter
starring = Jenny Agutter
Gary Warren
Sally Thomsett
Dinah Sheridan
Bernard Cribbins
William Mervyn
Ann Lancaster
music = Johnny Douglas
cinematography = Arthur Ibbetson
editing = Teddy Darvas
distributor = MGM-EMI (UK)
Universal Pictures (USA)
released = 21 December 1970
runtime = 109 minutes
country = UK
language = English
budget =
amg_id = 1:40127
imdb_id = 0066279

"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.

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.

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.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.

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.

External links

* [http://www.middletonrailway.org.uk/rollingstock/67.htm Locomotive MSC67]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066279/ The Railway Children at IMDB]