THE BOY WHO TURNED YELLOW

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GB
1972
55mins
Dir: Michael Powell
Starring: Mark Dightam and Helen Weir

A boy turns yellow after being visited by an alien

This splendidly eccentric family short is another made by the Children’s Film Foundation and there is one surreal scene on the London Underground in which the yellow boy, played by Mark Dightam, sees everything else around him turn yellow, including the train, its driver and the other passenger! The scenes were filmed at the Aldwych branch platform of Holborn station, which masqueraded as both ‘Chalk Farm’ and ‘Hampstead’ stations on the Northern Line, though the entrance to Hampstead is seen in a later shot. A train of 1938-built tube stock was painted yellow especially for the film, though a more standard red one opens the scene, a British Transport Films stock shot of a southbound Bakerloo Line train arriving at Embankment station!

Mark Dightam arrives onto the platform of ‘Chalk Farm’ station on the London Underground. Not quite, as this is the disused Aldwych branch platform at Holborn
His train arrives, but just to confuse matters further this is a BTF stock shot of a 1938-built tube train arriving at Embankment on the Bakerloo Line.
The classic interior of 1938-built tube stock
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And as if by magic, everything is yellow!!
Causing quite a sensation as it pulls into the platform, the yellow train brings a new meaning to the ‘Circle Line’. Holborn once again.
Running scared from the train, the boy who turned yellow arrives up onto the street. This is the entrance to Hampstead Underground station, the deepest station on the network at 192ft below ground.