The Railway Children

- Season 1

(1968)

When their father is taken away on Christmas Day by two gentlemen from the Foreign Office and fails to return in the next few weeks, his wife announces that she and the children - Roberta (Bobbie), Phyllis and Peter - will be moving to Oakworth Yorkshire "to play at being poor for a while". They move into a cottage called Three Chimneys.

The children discover that a nearby field backs onto the railway line. They wave at a passing steam train with their handkerchiefs. A distinguished-looking gentleman waves back. Following the line, the children arrive at Oakworth station where they meet porter Albert Perks.

Bobbie catches Peter stealing coal from the station shed to keep their mother warm when she is taken ill. Realising they need help, Bobbie comes up with a plan to catch the Old Gentleman's attention when he passes the station on the 9.15 train the next day.

One day a ragged man staggers off the train at Oakworth, babbling in French. He is Russian dissident Szczepansky, who has escaped the Siberian mines for England to find his family. Mrs Waterbury has Szczepansky convalesce at their home and suggests the children say a prayer "for all prisoners and captives".

When the children ask around the town for birthday presents for Perks and are handed some old magazines, Bobbie is horrified to notice a newspaper headline: announcing her father's conviction and sentence to penal servitude. Knowing he is innocent, Bobbie resolves to rescue him.

Knowing her father is innocent, Bobbie enlists the help of Parks and hands him a letter to pass onto the 'Old Gentleman'. Excited by the local boys grammar school 'fox and hounds' paper chase, the children go to watch. One of the hounds fails to emerge from the railway tunnel...

The children find their 'hound with a broken leg. The boy, Jim, is taken to Three Chimneys. When Jim's grandfather comes to visit - it is their Old Gentleman!"When the children wave at the passing 9.15, the whole train waves back as if in celebration. At the station, Bobbie is greeted by an overjoyed Perks. A train from London halts and, as the steam clears, Bobbie sees a tall figure on the platform.