THE RAILWAY CHILDREN RETURN
Cert PG ★★★ In cinemas now
More than a half a century after the original, a sequel to the 1970 British classic chugs into cinemas. This old-fashioned charmer is on track to charm kids and stoke warm memories for accompanying adults.
Jenny Agutter returns as Bobbie, once a petticoat-waving Edwardian teen, now a dignified pensioner living in the idyllic village of Oakworth with her headmistress daughter Annie (Sheridan Smith) and cheery 13-year-old grandson Thomas (Austin Haynes).
It’s July 1944 and, when a train packed with evacuees arrives at the station, Bobbie invites three unruly kids from Salford to stay with her family.
As resourceful Lily (Beau Gadsdon),
younger sister Pattie (Eden Hamilton) and little Ted (Zac Cudby) play in the railway sidings with Thomas, all signals point to gentle, nostalgia-fuelled family entertainment.
Then there’s an unscheduled diversion. A troop of Black American GIs has been welcomed with open arms at Oakworth’s village pub and the white supremacist US military police are fuming. One soldier is beaten in the street and another is shot.
The next day, the children discover an injured Black American serviceman hiding in a derelict train carriage. Young Abe (KJ Aikens) claims to be on a secret mission and Lily is suspicious but the kids agree to help him.
The ending is as unlikely as the one in the original and the low budget is apparent, especially in a scene involving an unseen German bomber and far-from-spectacular
explosion. However, the plot chimes beautifully with the original film where the family helped another outsider, a Russian dissident.
It’s not as brazenly topical as it sounds, either. The writers were inspired by the Battle Of Bamber Bridge, a 1943 race riot involving American troops that was sparked by the refusal of Lancashire publicans to impose US segregation laws.
After years of seeing Brits as Hollywood villains, it’s refreshing to see us on the right side of history.