IT COULDN’T HAPPEN HERE

GB
1987
1hr 27mins
Dir: Jack Bond
Starring: Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe

Synth-pop duo the Pet Shop Boys star in a surreal musical odyssey, featuring fourteen songs from their first two albums

This pop-surrealist road movie was originally conceived as an hour-long video based on the album Actually, but it evolved into a surreal, full-scale feature film that also featured music from Please. The film was a critical and commercial failure, probably because it lacked a recognisable storyline, but ‘The Boys’ did not deserve to be on the end of such a cruel reception though plans for a sequel were shelved. Released initially at the BFI London Film Festival in November 1987, the working title for the movie was A Hard Day’s Shopping, a reference to The Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night. It has a scene filmed at Horsted Keynes station on the Bluebell Railway, with the duo hitching a ride on a goods train hauled by Fenchurch. The scene then jumps to a train journey on the main line somewhere which ends with a musical sequence at London Marylebone with a Class 115 DMU providing the backdrop. This journey features a murky drivers eye view with a run through what appears to be Whitehouse Tunnel, near Wycombe.

As the Pet Shop Boys arrive at Horsted Keynes, ex-LB&SCR Class A1X ‘terrier tank’ No.72 Fenchurch passes by in extreme close up.
The Pet Shop Boys, Chris Lowe (left) and Neil Tennant on a bench at Horsted Keynes
The smoke and the rain add to this scene of the goods train at Horsted Keynes. The stock, from front to back, consists of 8-plank open wagon No.30004 (ex-Port of Bristol Authority), SR 4-wheel ventilated van No.47588 and BR Standard brake van No.49027 ex-MoD and still in Longmoor Military Railway blue.
As Chris Lowe watches from the verandah of the brake van we are treated to this unique view of Horsted Keynes station
This is the cab of a Class 115 DMU working a service somewhere on the Chiltern lines. The weather outside looks horrendous.
The Pet Shop Boys have alighted from the Class 115 at London Marylebone. TS No.59655 is on the left.
I don’t know who this lady is, but this is a beautifully composed shot