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GB / US / FRA 2004 1hr 29mins Dir: John Stephenson Starring: Tara Fitzgerald and Kenneth Branagh
Five evacuated children make friends with a sand fairy
This popular adventure fantasy film based on E. Nesbit’s 1902 book of the same title features scenes at the start that were filmed on the Isle of Man Railway. There are some excellent shots of Beyer Peacock 2-4-0T No.11 Maitland departing Douglas station and then arriving at Castletown. Douglas masquerades as ‘Hampton Wick’ but Castletown station appears as itself. More interesting is the fact that the coaching stock carries spurious ‘Somerset & Dorset’ branding! Between these scenes there are some equally fine aerial shots of Beyer Peacock 2-4-0T No.10 G.H. Wood passing through the countryside. Although the book title has the number 5 along with the word ‘and’, the title appears on movie covers and on posters spelled in various formats, with or without an ampersand, and sometimes with the number written in full (5 Children & It or Five Children & It).
Evacuees, soldiers, parents and friends at Douglas station, masquerading in this instance as ‘Hampton Wick’
Freddie Highmore on the platform with typical Isle of Man Railway coaching stock behind
In this low angle view, Beyer, Peacock & Co 2-4-0T No.11 Maitland starts to pull away from the station. The loco was named after company director Dalrymple Maitland.
Sheep scatter as the train steams past the fields. Note the gate on the opposite side of the farm crossing is open to the line!
In this much closer view of the train, the loco is revealed in all its finery to be none other than the line’s No.10, G.H. Wood, named after the company director and secretary George Henry Wood. The locomotives livery, incidentally, is classed as Indian Red.
This excellent shot shows the train on the final approach to Castletown station, with the locomotive captured bursting out from beneath the small occupation bridge just north east of the station
In another equally fine study, the train is captured arriving into the platform at Castletown
We are even treated to another closeup shot of a simmering Maitland
The train’s arrival seen ‘platform side’
This shot of Freddie Highmore about to get off the train has been included because it shows us a tantalising glimpse of the ‘Somerset & Dorset’ branding bottom left
