Another train delay: Railway Children draws complaint 43 years late

[whole diary]

[grahame]

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/yorkshire-living/arts/cinema/another-train-delay-railway-children-draws-complaint-43-years-late-1-5846636

Many news feeds and newspapers reporting that the 1970 film "The Railway Children" has been reported to the British Board of Film Classification for the bad influence on children - encouraging them to trespass on the railway.  Amongst dour headlines, I love the one from the Yorkshire Post which I have used as the title for this thread.

Jenny Agutter (Bobbie) was a notable supporter of the campaign for appropriate services across the South West after the December 2006 cuts, and indeed a signatory of our epetition on the subject which was signed more times than any previous domestic public transport petition.  I spoke with her, and not only was she a supporter, but she was also a regular used of by-then-FGW^▸ (First Great Western) services, and very knowledgable on them.

[trainer]

My greater fear about this so-called 'family' film is that it encourages young girls to wave their undies in public.  Go to any pop concert with boy bands and (so I have been told) the air is thick with unmentionables hurled in the direction of the stage.  I believe this never happened before the film was released.  Whatever happened to innocent pleasure?   

[JayMac]

Fellow Tauntonian Jenny Agutter featured in the 1998 World in Action documentary about FGW^▸ (First Great Western) forerunner Great Western Trains that forumite thetrout and I posted about recently, elsewhere on the forum.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=12597.msg135548#msg135548

I, too, have met her, but we didn't discuss transport. I merely took the payment for the petrol she had just pumped into her car. Mid 1990s and I was working in the Safeway (now Morrisons) petrol station in Taunton.

Here's what Jenny has to say about cars and public transport:

http://www.jennyagutter.net/caruse.html

My dream remains that trains, trams and buses should become reliable and affordable. I think that since so much of our time is spent travelling it should be enjoyable too.

As for the complaint to the BBFC about The Railway Children. Absurd. If anything the complainant should be more concerned about teenage girls taking off and waving their underwear in public. 


EDIT: My post was being compiled as trainer's was posted. It appears that we share similar views. 

[bobm]

Jenny Agutter and her lack of a red petticoat almost got me thrown out of school.

We had a Saturday night cinema club for the benefit of the boarders confined to the school for the weekend and in my last year it fell to me to organise it.  In the late 70s the films were still shown on the actual celluloid film complete with sprocket holes - none of this DVD malarkey.  One week we had a particular problem hiring in a film that was suitable for teenage boys and in our price range.   In desperation I came across "Walkabout".  Seeing Jenny Agutter was in it I thought "Well that has to be OK, she was in the Railway Children".

Well of course Walkabout features numerous scenes of nudity - which inevitably proved very popular on the night!

All would have been fine if some irk in the third form hadn't written home to his mother.......