On its release in 1970, the film adaptation of Edith Nesbit's novel The Railway Children was a runaway success. It is a period piece detailing the trials and tribulations of an affluent English family who fall on hard times. When the father is unjustly arrested on suspicion of spying, they seek refuge in the countryside.
Critics praised the performance of future The Avengers star Jenny Agutter, then at the beginning of a career that would see her win Emmy and BAFTA Awards, for her work as eldest daughter Bobbie. Starring opposite Agutter was Bernard Cribbins, best known to today's audiences as Uncle Wilf in David Tennant-era Doctor Who, but known in the 1970s as a mainstay of British comedy, a sometime pop star, and a noted Carry On alumnus.
The original film was excellently reviewed and, even today, is one of the very few films that holds a coveted 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It comes as no surprise, then, to find a sequel in the offing. Due for release later this month, here's what to expect from The Railway Children Return.
The Railway Children Return: The Plot
Filmmakers taking on a sequel to The Railway Children face a fundamental dilemma -- how to write a sequel set in the Edwardian era, which began in 1901 and was over in less than a decade, without compromising the nostalgic, turn-of-the-century feel that made the original such a hit with audiences. Simple -- update the nostalgia instead.
Writer Danny Brocklehurst, whose Netflix series Safe (2018) and The Stranger (2020) both garnered critical acclaim, took the wise decision to situate the action not prior to World War One but during the Second World War. Unlike many countries, in the United Kingdom, it was felt that the best way of safeguarding the children living in cities vulnerable to aerial attack by the Luftwaffe was to evacuate them to the countryside. Over one million children were sent from London and other cities such as Manchester and Liverpool to towns and villages in rural areas during the course of the war. This episode in history has been the basis for many films and TV shows, the most famous of which is the film adaptation of C. S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
The Railway Children Returns begins with this premise, seeing three evacuees -- Lily, Pattie, and Ted -- sent by their mother from Manchester to the sleepy environs of Oakworth in Yorkshire. This is the same village Bobbie and her siblings found themselves in forty years previously, which Bobbie never left.
As the children settle down to a new life beyond the grimy confines of the city, they receive an unexpected visitor. While playing a game of hide and seek in a railway siding, they come across a soldier. In hiding and injured, the children embark on a dangerous quest to help their newfound friend.
The Railway Children Return: The Cast & Crew
Not many film franchises get their sequel an entire half-century after the first installment. Moviegoers would be forgiven for thinking the allure of The Railway Children would have dimmed in the minds of many in the movie industry in the meantime. However, this is not the case, and the long list of stars attached to the sequel is proof.
Chief among them is Tom Courtenay, the Oscar-nominated star of Doctor Zhivago, The Golden Compass, and The Aeronauts. Also added to the cast is John Bradley, who came to prominence with Game of Thrones and was seen most recently playing nerdy conspiracy theorist K. C. in Roland Emmerich's barmy disaster film Moonfall. And in an affectionate nod to the original production, Agutter returns, starring as a grown-up version of Bobbie, with Sheridan Smith (Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps) cast as her daughter Annie.
Also starring in the film as the young evacuees are Beau Gadsdon as Lily, Eden Hamilton as Pattie, and Zac Cudby as Ted. Hamilton and Cudby are newcomers to film, but Gadsdon will be familiar to sci-fi fans for her turn as a young Jyn Erso in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. KJ Aikens plays the soldier the children encounter.
The Railway Children Return's director Morgan Matthews is better known for his documentary work such as Scenes From A Teenage Killing (about youth violence in the UK) and Shooting Bigfoot (about so-called Bigfoot Hunters in the US) than feature films. His only previous outing into fiction, 2014's X+Y, received positive reviews. If the trailers for The Railway Children Return are anything to go by, Matthews makes full use of the rolling Yorkshire countryside and the to-die-for locations of the original film (which was shot on a heritage railway line in the county) to provide an authentic mid-20th-century atmosphere.
Release Date
The Railway Children Return releases on July 15, 2022.