It is perhaps a little self-conscious in the way it revives and reimagines classic plot points, and there may be issues of historical authenticity. Would US military police really have been allowed to arrest a minor British citizen and handcuff her across the country? But there’s plenty of fun to be had, channeling old classics like Hue and Cry and Whistle Down the Wind. Three displaced children from wartime Manchester, Lily (Beau Gadsdon), Pattie (Eden Hamilton) and Ted (Zac Cudby) come to the very village where Roberta has apparently stayed and is now a kindly grandmother: the daughter (Sheridan Smith) is the headmaster of the local school and has a slightly Just-William-ish son called Thomas (Austin Haynes), whose father is away in the RAF fighting the Germans. Railway Children fans could be forgiven for wondering if other legacy characters from the original film are going to be revived, or if we’ll find out if Bobby really did marry Jim, grandson of the ‘Old Gentleman’ in the first story, as it seemed. likely. Well, suffice it to say that we find out that Bobbi became a staunch suffragette as a young woman and, for those reasons, comes very close to the blasphemy of disagreeing with Winston Churchill. Now it seems the family apparently has a kindly old uncle, played by Tom Courtenay, who is silent at the War Office. Kenneth Aikens (right) as Abe in The Railway Children Return. Photo: Jaap Buitendijk/StudioCanal Lily, Patty and Ted wander around the place with their new friend Thomas, get into fights with the local kids who resent them, and meet the peppery stationmaster Richard, played by John Bradley. But the adults are aware of the tension with the US military police who have a racist attitude towards the African-American GIs who are popular in the village. This grown-up problem becomes a reality in the children’s lives when they find a wounded, shivering black American soldier hiding in one of the railroad’s engines on a siding. this is Abe (Kenneth Aikens), who sternly tells them that they are on a secret mission and under no circumstances should they tell anyone that they are there. In earnest, the four children bring him food and supplies and agree to hide him in their home. This is a film a touch wiser to the real world than its 1970 ancestor, at least in part because it has child actors who are the same age as their characters. The now-legendary scene from the first film in which Bobbie sees her dad through the steam on the railway platform – a scene that has become more iconic than its creators ever imagined – is repeated and doubled in a new dream which Lily has, in a much more serious context. And there are other shenanigans that involve holding up signs to a passing train and causing it to stop. It’s a friendly and clever tribute to the innocent, good-natured spirit of the original. The Railway Children Return hits theaters July 15.
