The Railway Children

The Railway Children is a 2000 drama television film based on the 1906 novel by E. Nesbit. It was broadcast for the first time in the United Kingdom on 23 April 2000 (which was Easter Sunday). Shortly afterwards, it was shown in the United States on the series Masterpiece Theatre. Plot Roberta (Bobbie), Peter and Phyllis live a comfortable and carefree upper middle-class life in London with their parents. But when their father (Michael Kitchen), a senior civil servant, is arrested on a charge of treason, found guilty, and imprisoned for life at the request of his co worker, they are forced to move with their mother to Three Chimneys, a cold and run-down country cottage near a railway. Whilst Mother (Jenny Agutter) tries to make a meagre living writing stories and poems she hopes magazines and newspapers will publish, the children seek amusement by watching the trains on the nearby railway line (the fictional Great Northern and Southern Railway) and waving to the passengers. They become friendly with Perks, the cheerful station porter, but feel the wrath of the stationmaster when Peter is caught trying to steal coal to heat the house. Occasionally the children quarrel, but they always call "pax" (a truce) and remain good-natured.