The Railway Children ***** (1970, Dinah Sheridan, Bernard Cribbins, William Mervyn, Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett, Gary Warren) – Classic Movie Review 417

Esteemed character actor Lionel Jeffries turned writer-director for the beloved, ageless 1970 classic British family drama film The Railway Children. What a grand job Jeffries makes of this enduring favourite! With its perennial and universal appeal, it has long since etched itself into the British national consciousness.

In his version of E Nesbit’s celebrated Edwardian children’s classic novel, three sweet Edwardian middle-class kids are moved to a poor Yorkshire village by their mother Mrs Waterbury (Dinah Sheridan). There they are astonishingly un-mischievous, while playing around the local steam railway line. They are befriended by Albert Perks the porter (Bernard Cribbins) and a wealthy old gentleman (William Mervyn).

There’s a little jollity, as the kids play and Jenny Agutter famously waves her knickers at passing trains (don’t do this at home, children!). There’s a little adventure as Agutter waves her red bloomers at a train – though only to prevent a crash. And then there’s a little mystery, since the kids’ Foreign Office father (Iain Cutherbertson) has been wrongfully arrested one Christmas Day and imprisoned for spying. Can they clear their father’s name and get the family back together?

Jeffries beautifully captures the ideal of a retro perfect childhood with its sense of fun, optimism and high spirits. But the success of this slight story all hinges on the children’s charm, and Agutter (‘Bobbie’ Waterbury), Sally Thomsett (Phyllis) and Gary Warren (Peter) have it in bucketfuls. So do all the adults, veterans of British comedy and, quite evidently, pals of the director.

The film is almost the last of its breed, a Fifties Ealing Studios comedy in all but name, way out of its time even way back in 1970. Made in the middle of a time of total change and social upheaval, this dinosaur wasn’t rejected at all. Far from it: audiences clearly related to the story’s cosiness and reassurance that all was still okay in the heart of the UK.

That is how it is still viewed today: a sweet, gorgeous and utterly appealing picture. There were no awards for this film at all, just box office success and that enduring esteem it is held in.

As Thomsett was 20 when she was cast as 11-year-old Phyllis, her contract forbade her to reveal her true age during the making of the film and she was not allowed to be seen smoking, drinking, going out with her boyfriend or driving her sports cars.

The film rights the 1906 novel were bought on a six-month option for £300 by Jeffries after reading the book for the first time when he was returning to Britain by ship from the US to act in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He had lost his own books and borrowed The Railway Children from his 13-year-old daughter Martha. He said: ‘I found the climate of the story just right for me, a way in which to start entertaining people and help not destroy our industry. There are hardly any films being made for children and for middle aged and older age groups. I thought this could be one.’

It is his directorial debut and he writes the screenplay. He said: ‘I’ve kept to the story. It would be an imposition not to – after all, E Nesbit’s survived 50 years.’ Jeffries won finance from EMI Films boss Bryan Forbes, who suggested Jeffries direct.’I knew there were slight bets among the technical staff as to how long I’d last,’ said Jeffries. ‘I knew we were taking a big, calculated risk in swimming against the permissive mainstream with such a story. All I could do was make it as honestly as possible: a Victorian documentary.’

The film was released in UK cinemas on 21 December 1970 to critical as well as box office success.

43 years after it release, it received its first complaint. A TV viewer complained to British Board of Film Classification that the film might encourage children to play on railway tracks. The complaint was not upheld. The BBFC concluded that it was ‘very unlikely’ that The Railway Children would promote ‘such dangerous activity’.

It was remade for TV in 2000 as The Railway Children, with Jenny Agutter now playing the mother Mrs Waterbury and Richard Attenborough as the old gentleman.

The Railway Children celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2020. It premiered in London on 21 December 1970.

Jenny Agutter returns as Roberta ‘Bobbie’ Waterbury in The Railway Children Return (2022).

Jennifer Ann Agutter OBE (born 20 December 1952) began her career as a child actress in 1964, appearing in East of Sudan, Star!, and two adaptations of The Railway Children – the 1968 TV serial and the 1970 film.

Dinah Sheridan, best remembered for Genevieve, died on November 25 2012, aged 92.

Lionel Jeffries, best remembered for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), died on February 19 2010, aged 83.

Bernard Cribbins OBE died at the age of 93 on 28 July 2022. He is fondly remembered for Two-Way Stretch (1960), The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963), Crooks in Cloisters (1964), Carry On Jack (1963), Carry On Spying (1964), Carry On Columbus (1992), as Dr Who companion Tom Campbell in the 1966 film Daleks – Invasion Earth 2150 AD, as Albert Perks in The Railway Children (1970), and as barman Felix Forsythe in Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy (1972).

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 417

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

London stage production 2016.