US 2008 1hr 32mins Dir: Joel Hopkins Starring: Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson
Two lonely people tentatively forge a relationship over the course of three days
This charming romantic drama has a lot of location work in London, and also features a trip from Heathrow Airport to London Paddington by train. Emma Thompson works at Heathrow Airport and seems to be a regular user of the Heathrow Express. However, all is not as it first appears because despite being treated to some excellent run pasts of the Class 332 ‘Heathrow Express’ EMU’s, the interior shots show her onboard a Class 360 ‘Heathrow Connect’ EMU!! In addition to this, there is a rare shot of one of the Class 332’s arriving at Heathrow Central station, and further sets visible at London Paddington, including unit No.332005. The DVD extras about the making of the film provide us with a few additional shots of filming taking place at Paddington. In these the Class 332’s are joined by a Class 165 ‘Turbo’ DMU and some HST sets, one power car of which is No.43161.
A ‘Heathrow Express’ Class 332 EMU passes West Ealing sidings. This is a view taken from Jacob’s Ladder footbridge and the train is rather unusually running on the up relief. This is probably a Saturday or early on a Sunday morning when single sets were in operation. For the rest of the week they were booked to run in pairs.
Emma Thompson is standing on Platform 1 at Heathrow Central station as a Class 332 arrives on a service to Terminal 5
There must have been some sort of service disruption because Emma Thompson has caught the ‘Heathrow Connect’ stopping service into London!! This is the interior of a Class 360 ‘Desiro’ EMU.
In another view from Jacob’s Ladder, a Class 332 heads towards Heathrow on the down main.
Passengers leave the ‘Heathrow Express’ on arrival at London Paddington. Two Class 332’s are visible here, that on the left in platform 6 being 332005. It was not the best to drive as she was rather slow!
Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson on the concourse at Paddington
This further view of the pair at Paddington shows a taxi parked at the entrance to the Praed Street ramp. Although this once gave taxis access to the station it has long since been closed off for such activities, meaning that the black cab was a prop put there by the production team.
This shot was taken from An Unconventional Love Story: The Making of Last Chance Harvey featurette and shows Class 332 No.332005 in the platform at Paddington with two HST power cars behind. The one in the adjacent platform is No.43161.
And from the same feature we see a Class 165 ‘Turbo’ DMU pulling out of the old platform 11
Here we have an HST set in platform 8 with a Class 332 ‘Heathrow Express’ EMU on the left in platform 7. This final shot was taken from the Shall We Walk? Romance Along The Streets of London featurette.
