The Railway Children Return. Sequel coming 15 July 2022.

[Nova Scotian]

Anyone seen it yet? Release date was yesterday, right?

[Steamport Southport]

To be honest it's not even on my radar apart from the fact it has a few locos in it, but I doubt it's really aimed at me. 

 

It's one of those films I might watch if it was on TV and nothing else was on. Usually at something like Christmas when the choice is often poor for someone with my tastes. Although I haven't even seen the newer version of The Railway Children that was filmed on The Bluebell with Rab C Nesbitt in it yet!

 

 

 

The 1970 film is on BBC Two Sunday at 13.50 and then will probably be on BBC iPlayer for a while (usually a month).

 

 

 

Jason

[The Stationmaster]

I don't particularly rate the Rab C Nesbitt  version - nothing like as good as Lionel Jeffries version (obviously) so I couldn't see the point of making it in the first place.  The Lionel  Jeffries' version, quite rightly, consistently scores very highly or at the top of  any 'Best Children's film of all time' listing and is a genuine classic piece of British cinema.  It is exceedingly difficult to emulate so hardly worth the bother in my opinion.

 

The 1957 BBC tv version impressed me because - probably - of the subject matter but some bits of it were very well done (in my opinion as it was in those days) and some of the casting was excellent making some very believable characters.  I saw little of the 1968 BBC tv version but I think it wasn't bad and was a worthwhile tv remake for the Beeb.  I suspect it helped begat the Lionel Jeffries film of 2 years later - both were filmed on the K&WVR and both starred Jenny Agutter as Bobby.

 

But all of the above were made for a main target audience of children and told, in their various ways, adaptations of the original story in its original setting - which is why they scored and they had a good starting point from the storyline of the book.

 

I suspect the new version is probably trying to be a bit too clever for itself in its storyline and it certainly contains anachronisms and might well stretch credibility at times for those with any knowledge of the era in which it is set.  But I say that without having seen it beyond a synopsis, publicity, and various clips/stills.  But we have plenty of free tickets for the local Vue cinema so I might take a look when the weather improves (i.e. cools) although I suspect the anachronisms (not even from a railway point of view) will not impress me -  after all it is set in the wrong part of the wrong year for a kick-off.

[Steamport Southport]

I do know the incident that involved the GIs was in Bamber Bridge, near Preston, Lancashire.....

 

 

 

Jason

[Hroth]

The 1970 Railway Children film is currently on BBC2....

It started at 13:50, but its possible to catch up on iPlayer.

 

A good reason for keeping out of the sun with a long cold drink!

[Vistisen]

On 14/07/2022 at 13:57, F-UnitMad said:

Blimey, I hope they've not been too traumatised by the relationship between Inspector Clouseau and Cato.... 🙄😉

Not to mention Tom and Jerry, that has got the full spectrum: random violence, racial sterotyping, mistreating animals, sexual stereotyping...

[F-UnitMad]

5 minutes ago, Vistisen said:

Not to mention Tom and Jerry, that has got the full spectrum: random violence, racial sterotyping, mistreating animals, sexual stereotyping...

Which famously inspired the Itchy & Scratchy cartoons within the Simpsons cartoon. 👍

[The Stationmaster]

4 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

I do know the incident that involved the GIs was in Bamber Bridge, near Preston, Lancashire.....

 

 

 

Jason

June 1943.  The film is set in 1944 not that things had changed by then in respect of racial tensions within the US army.  The Manchester blitz had been at its height in late 1940 and then into 1941 and it seems sporadic occasional  raids continued after then; the only big attack in 1944 was in late December and was air-launched V1s. none of which fell in Manchester itself.

 

Mass evacuation of 20,000 children frm Manchester took place in September 1939 and no doubt some returned home as happened elsewhere.  Further evacuations were prompted by German air raids in 1940/41 and probably involved Manchester but I can't find any details.  The only evacuation of children in 1944 seems to have been in the south and south east of England due to the V1bombardment.  

 

Child evacuees from Manchester were sent to rural lLaancashire and Cheshire including some to small towns although it appears that some also went to North Wales.  The evacuees sent to smaller towns and villages in Yorkshire initially came from Leeds in the September 1939 evacuation but some from cities further south also went to Yorkshire during the war.

 

There were undoubtedly some considerable misgivings among part of the civilian population regarding the sexual behaviour of US troops  (white and coloured  based in the UK.  9,000 babies were born to British women fathered by US service personnel between 1942 and the end of the war,.  between 1942 and 1945 more than 400 GIs were convicted for sexual offences including six who were hanged by US military authorities after conviction for rape.  So it is not unlikely that many women warned their daughters against any sort of involvement with any GIs irrespective of their race - that was certainly the case among grown women many of whom steered well clear of all US troops because of their reputation.  It thus seems a little odd that female children of the age portrayed in the film had not been so warned although they definitely were very unlikely to have any sort of racial prejudice. because generally the British treated black GIs as people rather than some sort of different race.

[Michael Hodgson]

As it happens I watched the origimal film on the box this afternoon while sheltering from the heatwave. 

 

I've never been a fan of remakes and sequel.  Some films are (quite deservedly) flops on day 1, while others are popular and commercially successful.  The thing is they don't do remakes of the box office disasters, they only do a modern update on those that were well written, well acted and well filmed the first time round.  So a remake is always up against high expectations - but like with any new film, they get their fair share of third rate efforts.  The remake is rarely as good as the original.

 

[Nearholmer]

Hoping to go and see this one later in the week or sometime next week, but thinking along MH’s lines it has got a hill to climb, not so much in comparison with the films of the original but in terms of the concept and plot, because Edith Nesbit was one heck of a good author. It might be a good idea to make films from more of her books, rather than sequels. Even more true of her sometime pal Mr H G Wells, who wrote a lot more that is worthy of filming than ‘War of the Worlds’ and ‘The Time Machine’.

[Nova Scotian]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Hoping to go and see this one later in the week or sometime next week, but thinking along MH’s lines it has got a hill to climb, not so much in comparison with the films of the original but in terms of the concept and plot, because Edith Nesbit was one heck of a good author. It might be a good idea to make films from more of her books, rather than sequels. Even more true of her sometime pal Mr H G Wells, who wrote a lot more that is worthy of filming than ‘War of the Worlds’ and ‘The Time Machine’.

Reading "Five Children and IT" to my kids at the moment - which has had a number of TV and film versions. I've not seen the 2014 film, the 90s TV version was good.

 

[Steamport Southport]

7 hours ago, Vistisen said:

Not to mention Tom and Jerry, that has got the full spectrum: random violence, racial sterotyping, mistreating animals, sexual stereotyping...

 

Great aren't they!

 

You do realise they are political satire? Worth looking at the date of the first one which was 1940.

 

Tom and Jerry are Britain and Germany - always fighting. Even though they got the names the wrong way around and Jerry was often seen as American in some films. In the first one the cat is Jaspar and mouse is unnamed.

 

The little mouse (named Nibbles or Tuffy depending on story) is France and often speaks French. Brave but often needs protecting.

 

Depending on film either Mammie Two Shoes (the maid) or Spike/Killer/Butch is America stopping the other two fighting. 

 

Tyke represents the young and weak needing to be defended by the stronger America represented by the American Bulldog (Spike).

 

 

[Steamport Southport]

1 hour ago, Nova Scotian said:

Reading "Five Children and IT" to my kids at the moment - which has had a number of TV and film versions. I've not seen the 2014 film, the 90s TV version was good.

 

 

I had to look that up. I thought it was well before then, but 1990s is correct. 1991 according to Wiki.

 

 

I suppose the BBC doesn't really do much of that Sunday Evening kids/family serials anymore. A lot of people under a certain age don't realise that ITV also used to make fantastic kids programmes.

 

One that probably was jumping on The Railway Children and Titfield Thunderbolt popularity when they started being shown on TV was The Flockton Flyer. Not as well remembered, but also has a Pannier and a family forced to live by a railway (that they take over).

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flockton_Flyer

 

 

Jason

[Captain Kernow]

I shall be very happy to watch the new film, but CTMK and I will not be going to the cinema to watch it, rather we will wait until a DVD is available (or available on Netflix, if that happens and if that's sooner).

 

[Reorte]

16 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

As it happens I watched the origimal film on the box this afternoon while sheltering from the heatwave. 

 

I've never been a fan of remakes and sequel.  Some films are (quite deservedly) flops on day 1, while others are popular and commercially successful.  The thing is they don't do remakes of the box office disasters, they only do a modern update on those that were well written, well acted and well filmed the first time round.  So a remake is always up against high expectations - but like with any new film, they get their fair share of third rate efforts.  The remake is rarely as good as the original.

 

Yet those films that might've had good ideas but ended up badly made are the ones deserving of a remake. But I suppose commercial pressures means that doesn't happen. Fewer people will turn up for something that only have memories of being bad.

[melmerby]

14 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

I suppose the BBC doesn't really do much of that Sunday Evening kids/family serials anymore. A lot of people under a certain age don't realise that ITV also used to make fantastic kids programmes.

 

Jason

In this multichannel era, kids stuff has been bumped off the main channels.

Some good programmes still get made for children. e.g. Horrible Histories or Dodger.

[Liam]

I’ve read through this thread and it seems that I’m the first RMwebber to have seen it, so I shall give my thoughts. 

 

The film itself - brilliant. 
 

Accuracy of rolling stock - disappointing, and I was rather hoping that the significance of the film would prompt extra effort by the producers and the KWVR to ensure there would be period appropriate locos and rolling stock, but instead it seems that it’s been a case of five minute jobs that make token changes.

 

However, I don’t go to see a film to moan about incorrect railway liveries, I go and see a film for the story it portrays. And the storyline was very well laid out; there are many themes of the original film/novel that are replicated, such as having to move to the countryside because maintaining the current livelihood is unsustainable, the lack of two parents resulting in the eldest child adopting some maternal roles, a sense of duty to help someone in a crisis despite pressures against themselves and a closely connected kind hearted gentleman who has influential connections that can be of help. It  was also interesting to see how the Second World War has led to that repetition. 
 

Abe, the black US soldier, added a new dimension to the story and shines a light on racial tensions that existed in the US army during WW2. While a fictional story based on real events, Michael Morpurgo’s book ‘The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips‘ features two black US soldiers, one of whom says how the family they befriend were “the only white folks he knew that treated him like family”. With Abe, he wants to go home not because he is a coward, but because black soldiers are being racially abused. What follows is just like the landslide scene in the original film; an example of childhood ingenuity rescuing individuals from a threat, also with the use of a large white sheet. 
 

I fear the soundtrack of The Railway Children Return will be Dunkirk Mk2 - one that I loved but everyone else found annoying! All the same, it helps set the scene for the combination of drama and discovery that lies in the film.

 

All in all, I thought it was a great film that I’ll probably buy on DVD! 

[dibber25]

Saw it this afternoon. Firstly, we need to realise it's made for a 2022 audience not a 1970 one. I enjoyed it but wouldn't be rushing back to watch it again and again (I watch the original every few months). It's big issue is that it lacks the charm and gentle humour of the original but it's watchable enough. With my 'railway enthusiast' hat on, there's some rolling stock that's too modern (BR Mk1s) and there's some obvious vinyl LMS stickers over the BR crests on Bahamas and the '4F'. Sadly, some continuity is lost because The Three Chimneys has been modernised since the original film and presumably wasn't suitable. So the Three Chimneys in the new film is clearly the doctor's house from the original - that is The Bronte Parsonage Museum at Haworth. Minor nitpick - there's some throwing about of flour in the kitchen. This is common in almost every Hallmark movie involving kids and seems to be something which American audiences must like. In England, facing the hardships of war, such waste would surely have been unthinkable. Kids trespassing on railway lines is largely avoided this time until the 'last reel', when the stopping of the military train is presumably meant to mimic Bobbie and the landslide scene in the original. That, with its reversed projection, was dodgy. This version is downright bad. (CJL)

[Liam]

15 minutes ago, dibber25 said:

Minor nitpick - there's some throwing about of flour in the kitchen. This is common in almost every Hallmark movie involving kids and seems to be something which American audiences must like. In England, facing the hardships of war, such waste would surely have been unthinkable.

I’m not sure it’s done to appease American audiences, but Bobbie certainly makes a big deal about the waste of ingredients. The evacuee children might not have been in such a position where they feel freedom (and perhaps frivolity) in the kitchen since the war started. 

 

17 minutes ago, dibber25 said:

Kids trespassing on railway lines is largely avoided this time until the 'last reel', when the stopping of the military train is presumably meant to mimic Bobbie and the landslide scene in the original. That, with its reversed projection, was dodgy. This version is downright bad. (CJL)

Well, I don’t imagine the kids were given free reign of the goods yard. The final scene is very well done in my opinion; it may mimic Bobbie stopping the train from the landslide, but it also replicates the length that someone is prepared to go to in order to prevent danger to people. At one point the train was likely not stopping, so Thomas rushed to the four foot to ensure the train stopped. If no attempt to stop the train was made then you would have had a black American soldier subject to an unjust court martial, when all he’s done is tried to escape the racist abuse of the senior officers and MPs of his own army. 

[The Stationmaster]

10 hours ago, Liam said:

I’m not sure it’s done to appease American audiences, but Bobbie certainly makes a big deal about the waste of ingredients. The evacuee children might not have been in such a position where they feel freedom (and perhaps frivolity) in the kitchen since the war started. 

 

Well, I don’t imagine the kids were given free reign of the goods yard. The final scene is very well done in my opinion; it may mimic Bobbie stopping the train from the landslide, but it also replicates the length that someone is prepared to go to in order to prevent danger to people. At one point the train was likely not stopping, so Thomas rushed to the four foot to ensure the train stopped. If no attempt to stop the train was made then you would have had a black American soldier subject to an unjust court martial, when all he’s done is tried to escape the racist abuse of the senior officers and MPs of his own army. 

Waste in wartime - and for years afterwards was simply unthinkable and any child who did something like that would have got a darned good hiding from even the most mild mannered parents - and be forced to miss out some meals.  Utterly ridiculous.

 

As for stopping a train by standing in the four foot what we used to do with anyone who did that was send for a Doctor to get them carted off to an appropriate place unless they were clearly suicidal in which case they were taken to somewhere where a second Doctor's certificate wouldn't be immediately sought.  In simple terms if you pop into the four foot to stop a moving train the main thing which is going to suffer is you and regrettably I have had to pick up the pieces of some who tried it.  Showing that in a film is downriught stupid.

 

With thinsg like this I'm beginning to wonder whether it would be a waste of a free cinema ticket going to watch

[Mallard60022]

So sad that 'Perks' will not be able to take part in the celebration of this new release.

RIP Bernard.

P

[St Enodoc]

On 18/07/2022 at 03:55, The Stationmaster said:

There were undoubtedly some considerable misgivings among part of the civilian population regarding the sexual behaviour of US troops  (white and coloured  based in the UK.  9,000 babies were born to British women fathered by US service personnel between 1942 and the end of the war,.  between 1942 and 1945 more than 400 GIs were convicted for sexual offences including six who were hanged by US military authorities after conviction for rape.  So it is not unlikely that many women warned their daughters against any sort of involvement with any GIs irrespective of their race - that was certainly the case among grown women many of whom steered well clear of all US troops because of their reputation.  It thus seems a little odd that female children of the age portrayed in the film had not been so warned although they definitely were very unlikely to have any sort of racial prejudice. because generally the British treated black GIs as people rather than some sort of different race.

See Nevil Shute's "The Chequer Board".

[Liam]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Waste in wartime - and for years afterwards was simply unthinkable and any child who did something like that would have got a darned good hiding from even the most mild mannered parents - and be forced to miss out some meals.  Utterly ridiculous.

 

As for stopping a train by standing in the four foot what we used to do with anyone who did that was send for a Doctor to get them carted off to an appropriate place unless they were clearly suicidal in which case they were taken to somewhere where a second Doctor's certificate wouldn't be immediately sought.  In simple terms if you pop into the four foot to stop a moving train the main thing which is going to suffer is you and regrettably I have had to pick up the pieces of some who tried it.  Showing that in a film is downriught stupid.

 

With thinsg like this I'm beginning to wonder whether it would be a waste of a free cinema ticket going to watch

Agree about the waste of ingredients, and Bobbie does illustrate her anger about it, but Annie was taking part in the mess too. The whole scene though is overshadowed by the arrival of a telegram, which massively changes Annie’s attitude as she then asks for all the kids to make themselves scarce. 

[Liam]

1 hour ago, Mallard60022 said:

So sad that 'Perks' will not be able to take part in the celebration of this new release.

RIP Bernard.

P

Very sad - it was less than 24 hours ago was I chatting about him to colleagues and a general consensus that he was a legend was agreed. The film has been out for nearly two weeks though, so he may have just been able to see it. 

[dibber25]

13 hours ago, Liam said:

I’m not sure it’s done to appease American audiences, but Bobbie certainly makes a big deal about the waste of ingredients. The evacuee children might not have been in such a position where they feel freedom (and perhaps frivolity) in the kitchen since the war started. 

 

Well, I don’t imagine the kids were given free reign of the goods yard. The final scene is very well done in my opinion; it may mimic Bobbie stopping the train from the landslide, but it also replicates the length that someone is prepared to go to in order to prevent danger to people. At one point the train was likely not stopping, so Thomas rushed to the four foot to ensure the train stopped. If no attempt to stop the train was made then you would have had a black American soldier subject to an unjust court martial, when all he’s done is tried to escape the racist abuse of the senior officers and MPs of his own army. 

I wasn't suggesting that the train shouldn't have stopped and I certainly did not relate the stopping in any way to what might have happened to the black soldier. I was merely criticising the manner in which it appears to stop with a juddering halt like a sports car, which, if it had been for real, would certainly have run the child down. My criticism is that it re-inforces the (apparently widely-held) misconception that trains can stop on a sixpence. (CJL)