The Titfield Thunderbolt

This was the first Ealing comedy shot in Technicolor. When British Railways decides a branch line is unprofitable and closes it, the villagers buy it and set out to run it themselves. They are led by a vicar obsessed with trains and financed by a local man of means fond of drink. When their only steam engine is put out of action, the solution is to steal the antique locomotive from the museum, the Thunderbolt of the title. There is a real case behind it. The screenwriter T. E. B. Clarke visited the Talyllyn Railway in Wales in 1951, the first heritage railway in the world run by volunteers, and the idea came from there. Most of the shooting was done on the recently closed Camerton line. Charles Crichton directed and Douglas Slocombe photographed it. The English countryside is filmed here not as a real place but as an idea in need of protection, and that is exactly the film's politics. Who it is for: viewers who love Ealing comedy, trains and gentle English humour. Who it is not for: anyone wanting sharp comedy or conflict, since the film stays sweet throughout.