GB / US 2001 1hr 26mins Dir: Mel Smith Starring: Minnie Driver and Mary McCormack
Two women overhear a robbery and try to blackmail the gangsters involved
This enjoyable chick flick features a sequence filmed on the Mid Hants Railway, with Alresford station doubling as ‘Haywards Heath’, though the identity of ‘Three Bridges’ and ‘London Victoria’ stations has yet to be confirmed. Push-pull Class 33/1 No.33109 Captain Bill Smith RNR was used with a rake of carriages that consisted of three Mk2’s and one Mk.1. The first Mk.2 is in NSE livery, but the other three coaches are in BR/Southern Region green with the curious addition of two broad silver stripes on the lower body. There are also some shots filmed on the concourse of the real London Victoria station, though no trains appear here. The film is notable for the more interesting scene that was filmed at the abandoned platforms of Shoreditch station on the closed Dalston Junction-Broad Street line. The station site was cleared in 2005 prior to the route reopening as part of London Overground’s East London Line extension. There is also another, equally interesting scene, filmed beneath Souldern No.2 Viaduct in Oxfordshire.
This is the former North London Railway station at Shoreditch, which opened on 1st November 1865 and closed on 4th October 1940 as a result of bomb damage. The line through the station remained open until the last remaining services to Broad Street ceased on 30th June 1986. The platforms were removed when the line was reinstated for London Overground services during 2005. These began in April 2010, but no new station was opened here.
Minnie Driver and Mary McCormack on the the former island platform. Although the platforms received an asphalt covering during the early 1990s it clearly did not extend across the whole site.
Minnie Driver on the platform with the tower of Shoreditch Church behind. The scaffolding on the bridge across Old Street suggests some form of structural issue.
Looking the other way, and the grand edifice of Shoreditch Town Hall stands behind Mary McCormack
Kevin McNally takes an urgent call on the concourse of London Victoria
Despite the signage outside the window proclaiming otherwise this is not London Victoria. The exact location has yet to be identified, but it appears not to be anywhere on the Mid-Hants Railway where the other shots were filmed as the architecture is all wrong.
For the purposes of showing the trio of stations that were used in the film, here we see the train passing through Three Bridges. This is a mock Connex sign, possibly applied to a signal box on the Mid Hants.
There are several run pasts of the train on the Mid Hants Railway in extreme close up, but this is the best. The locomotive is push-pull Class 33/1 No.33109 Captain Bill Smith RNR with headcode AC in the route indicator.
Director Mel Smith, along with Kevin McNally, Minnie Driver and Len Collin, on platform 1 at Alresford station in Hampshire
Passengers leave the train at Alresford, on the Mid Hants Railway. Note the very odd silver stripes added to the green livery of the Mk 1 coach in the platform. Just as interesting, is the blue paint and yellow signage added at an attempt to make this a Connex-operated station.
This is the station forecourt at Alresford station with the former station mill in the background. Note the fake Haywards heath station sign. The station is actually located in New Alresford, Hampshire.
Equally interesting is this shot of Souldern No.2 viaduct, one of two viaducts crossing the Cherwell Valley south of Banbury, Oxfordshire. The cows are a common enough sight in the area, the Pontiac Firebird less so!
As the Firebird meets an untimely death, the viaduct stands tall and proud. The two Souldern viaducts were opened in 1910 as part of the GWR’s ‘Bicester Cut-off’ line. Both remain open today as part of the Chiltern main line.
