PINK FLOYD THE WALL

GB
1982
1hr 35mins
Dir: Alan Parker
Starring: Bob Geldof and Christine Hargreaves

A pop star has a nervous breakdown whilst looking back on his life

This live-action, part animated, surreal musical is based on the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall. The fantasy rock film based around Pink Floyd’s music includes sequences where the rock star is looking back on his father’s life during the Second World War and features a couple of recreated wartime scenes in which troop trains are a feature. These used the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and were filmed at Keighley station and in Mytholmes Tunnel, the latter in a scene very much reminiscent of The Railway Children (qv). Motive power was ex-LMS Class 8F 2-8-0 No.8431.

Above the tunnel at Mytholmes, near Oakworth in West Yorkshire
Having descended to the track, the three children await the passage of a train…
….and are seen from inside the tunnel itself. The tunnel is really not that long at all, and one wonders if an attempt was made like that on The Railway Children to make it look longer than it was. It certainly seems longer than 75 yards here.
This fine shot through the winter foliage shows the troop train approaching the tunnel
The loco of which is revealed to be ex-LMS Class 8F 2-8-0 No.8431
In this ethereal scene the train has passed leaving just its smoke lazily hanging around the tunnel mouth
A busy scene recreated at Keighley station
In this more surreal scene, No.8431 stands in the background beautifully lit by the setting sun