The Railway Children Return
Cert PG ★★★
In cinemas from July 15
Tom Cruise soared to the top of the global box office with Top Gun: Maverick, a spectacular sequel to his 1986 fighter pilot movie.
Now here’s the British version - a long overdue follow-up to the 1970 steam engine themed family adventure The Railway Children.
In this charmingly old-fashioned yarn, Jenny Agutter returns as Bobbie, once a plucky Edwardian teen now a kindly 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 the war arrives in this sleepy part of Yorkshire when a steam train packed with evacuees from Salford chugs into the station.
When local families are invited to choose which kids to take home, Bobbie tells her daughter to wait and watch.
When three scruffy children are left unpicked, Bobbie makes her move. The unwanted siblings will see out the war in her well-appointed house located close to the railway station.
Although a lot less posh than the original trio, the Watts feel familiar. The oldest Lily (Beau Gadsdon) is resourceful, her little sister Pattie (Eden Hamilton) is headstrong and Ted (Zac Cudby) misses his mum.
As they happily play in the railway sidings with Thomas, all signals point to a sedate, nostalgia-fuelled family entertainment.
Then there’s an unscheduled diversion. There’s trouble in Oakworth. A troop of black American GIs has been welcomed with open arms at the village pub and the racist, white 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 an derelict train carriage. Young Abe (KJ Aikens) claims to be on a secret mission, and while Lily is suspicious but the kids agree to help him.
The ending is as unlikely as the one in the original and the plot appears to chime, perhaps jarringly, with the Black Lives Matter movement.
But the only historical inaccuracy is the setting. Abe’s story was inspired by The Battle Of Bamber Bridge, a 1943 race riot involving American troops which 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.
There are no gung-ho US pilots saving the world in this sequel. But in championing tolerance and decency this British heart-warmer feels just as patriotic.
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