Jenny Agutter returns in new ‘The Railway Children’ sequel – watch the trailer!
More than half a century after the original movie, The Railway Children is getting a follow-up.
Before you worry about a classic being ruined and modernised, this actually looks really lovely!
Described as “an enchanting and heart-warming adventure for a new generation,” The Railway Children Return sees Jenny Agutter reprise her role as Roberta ‘Bobbie’ Waterbury from the 1970 film.
She’ll be joined by Sheridan Smith (Cilla) as Bobbie’s daughter, alongside Tom Courtenay (45 Years) and John Bradley (Game of Thrones), plus a cast of newcomers playing the children.
The Railway Children Return is set in 1944, nearly four decades after the events of the first film, with a new group of children being evacuated to a Yorkshire village during the Second World War.
Jenny Agutter will be most familiar to British period drama fans for playing Sister Julienne in the BBC’s Call the Midwife since 2012.
(Did you know Agutter had previously played Roberta in a 1968 television adaptation of The Railway Children, then played the mother in ITV’s version in 2000?)
A teaser trailer for The Railway Children Return was unveiled last year:
The official synopsis reads: “1944 – As life in Britain’s cities becomes increasingly perilous, three evacuee children – Lily (Beau Gadsdon), Pattie (Eden Hamilton) and Ted (Zac Cudby) Watts – are sent by their mother from Salford to the Yorkshire village of Oakworth.
“There to meet them on the train station platform are Bobbie Waterbury (Jenny Agutter, reprising her iconic role in the original film), her daughter, Annie (Sheridan Smith), and grandson Thomas (Austin Haynes), and with their help the evacuees are soon settling into their new life in the countryside.
“When the children discover injured American soldier Abe (KJ Aikens) hiding out in the railyard at Oakworth Station, they are thrust into a dangerous quest to assist their new friend who, like them, is a long way from home.”
Watch the full trailer here:
The Railway Children Return will be released in UK cinemas on Friday 15th July.
It was filmed last summer in and around the countryside of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway in West Yorkshire, where the first film was shot.
The script is written by acclaimed British TV screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst (Ordinary Lies, Shameless, Clocking Off).
Jenny Agutter is currently filming the twelfth season of Call the Midwife, ahead of its arrival in 2023.
The original The Railway Children movie is available on DVD on Amazon.