GB 1957 1hr 35mins Dir: John Boulting Starring: Ian Carmichael and Hugh Griffith
Mishaps of a lecturer at a provincial university
This comedy is an adaptation of the 1954 novel of the same name by Kingsley Amis. Ian Carmichael races to a railway station at the climax of the film, which used two stations as part of the same sequence. The arrival shots used Cowley, the intermediate station on the West Drayton-Uxbridge Vine Street branch where a 6100-series 2-6-2T is seen on a train. The departure shots, however, are at Bushey station on the West Coast main line, though the changeover is remarkably seamless! The film opens with a shot overlooking Watford with a steam-hauled express passing through the landscape, and closes with a shot of a local passenger service moving away from the camera at an as yet unidentified location.
This is a view overlooking Watford, in Hertfordshire. A steam-hauled express is visible on the right, making good progress on the final leg of its journey into London. The shot appears to have been taken from atop the old Power House of Bushey station.
This is Cowley in Middlesex, and a train is approaching hauled by a Class 6100-series 2-6-2T. The shot is looking north towards Uxbridge.
The arriving car is completely lost because this is Bushey station, on the West Coast main line near Watford, Hertfordshire. This is a view from the down fast platform (No.3) Notice Bushey Arches curving round behind the trees and the 4 car stop marker.
This is the forecourt of Bushey station
Back at Cowley now and the train has arrived. The numberplate on the bunker of the 6100 Class on the left can not be identified.
After a brief stop, the guard prepares for the ‘right away’
The credits roll to the sight of an altogether different location. As a steam-hauled pasenger service passes beneath a footbridge, it heads towards a level crossing. But where is it?
