JUDE

GB
1996
2hrs 03mins
Dir: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet

A rural labourer dreams of becoming a teacher

This gritty period drama set in Victorian England is based on Thomas Hardy’s depressing novel Jude the Obscure. It features a period train journey filmed on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway with a train hauled by ex-LMS Class 3F ‘Jinty’ 0-6-0T No.47279. There is also a brief sequence filmed outside the former Richmond (Yorks) railway station, happily playing the role of a railway station in the film twenty-six years after its closure in 1969!

A horse and carriage pulls up outside ‘Phillotson’ railway station. In a nice touch from the producers, this is a former railway station. The background building is the old station building of Richmond, in North Yorkshire, which closed to traffic in 1969 and was in use as a garden centre at the time of filming. It is now a vibrant creative space featuring bars, a cinema, art galleries, and artisan shops.
Ex-LMS 3F ‘Jinty Tank’ No.47279 approaches the camera with a full head of steam
A short while later we get a passengers eye view of the loco at the front as the train rounds a curve
Followed by this relatively unusual birds eye view of proceedings