BENEDICTION

GB / US
2021
2hrs 17mins
Dir: Terence Davies
Starring: Jack Lowden and Kate Phillips

A film charting the life of British poet and decorated WWI combat veteran Siegfried Sassoon

This lengthy Anglo-American historical romance has some railway scenes filmed on the Severn Valley Railway. These include an internal shot of a train pulling out of Kidderminster station, incongruously showing 1950s coaching stock in the adjacent platform! None the less there are some decent shots of coaching stock, and one wartime shot of a genuine troop train departing from a station, though even this has been inexplicably reversed.

Soldiers say farewell in this recreation of a troop train. Filmed on the Severn Valley Railway, the carriage appears to be GWR Churchward Toplight Third No.3930 built in 1915, so an ideal vehicle for a supposed First World War setting.
The above scene cleverly fades to a different carriage, this being LNER Brake Composite Corridor No.24068 built in 1937. Note the fictitious SE&CR branding.
This genuine piece of newsreel footage shows a well-filled troop train departing from a terminus platform. It may be somewhere on the Midland, but why oh why has this shot been reversed (just look at the 2nd class designations on the carriage doors).
Jack Lowden heads off to Scotland. Outside the window is LMS (BR) Brake Third Corridor (‘Porthole’ design) No.26986 with ‘The Red Rose’ carriage boards. This was not built until 1950, so it is too young even for a WWII film let alone one set in 1917.
The only locomotive we see in the film consists of the wheels and motion of GWR 0-6-0ST No.813, built for the Port Talbot Railway in 1901