LIVING

GB
2022
1hr 42mins
Dir: Oliver Hermanus
Starring: Bill Nighy and Aimee Lou Wood

A London bureaucrat’s icy reserve begins to melt when a dire prognosis inspires him to build a surprising legacy

This melancholic drama was adapted from the 1952 Japanese film Ikiru, which in turn was inspired by the 1886 Russian novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy. Set in London in 1952, the film has some fantastic cinematography that well and truly draws the viewer in. It has scenes filmed on the Bluebell Railway at Sheffield Park station with a train hauled by Standard 4 tank No.80151. There are some excellent shots of the train passing through the countryside, plus some lengthy scenes filmed onboard, but it isn’t all Bluebell Railway. The opening credits feature stock shots of London, the first of which shows a view looking down Ludgate Hill towards St. Paul’s with an electric train visible on the old railway bridge. There are also a couple of shots of London Waterloo but the only train visble here is a CGI rendition of No.80151.

This classic view down Ludgate Hill shows a train on the bridge in the centre of the shot. The bridge carried the line to Holborn Viaduct but was removed soon after closure in 1990. The spire of St. Martin’s Ludgate is somewhat overshadowed by the dome of St. Paul’s.
Commuters wait for their morning train at Sheffield Park station on the Bluebell Railway
Standard Class 4MT 2-6-4 No.80151 draws into Sheffield Park station. The train is slightly anachronistic in that the film is set in 1952 yet the locomotive was not built until 1957. That does not matter in this case though as the author loves a Standard 4!
No.80151 takes its train through the Sussex countryside
The journey to work continues with this interesting aerial view
This is Waterloo station but the locomotive in the background is a CGI rendition
Another view of bowler hatted gentlemen at Waterloo station
The film includes this aerial shot of the often overlooked ‘main’ entrance to Waterloo
Whether the frost is a rendition or not, this is a beautiful image of No.80151 and train
Many quite lengthy scenes are filmed inside the compartment of this BR Mk.1 coach. Not a laptop or mobile phone insight, just newspapers, umbrellas, and bowler hats!