oh dear this new railway children, i had better say before anyone tries to get hold of it, isn't worth it. not even for the cute hound in the red jersey because he's only in it for a few scenes anyway. the new movie stays closer to the book, but the acting is all wrong. the children don't behave right. they don't talk or move right. i just don't believe it possible. they're so obviously modern day children in a modern day movie dressed up in old fashioned cloths it's embarrassing i feel about them the way i might about badly-behaved children on the mrt to whose parents deserve as much a walloping as they - they're petulant and spoilt and tiresome - none of them have the naturalness or the sincerity of the original cast - in that way staying close to the book is even more of a travesty because the words, coming straight off the pages of nesbit, sound artificial and out of place in their mouths. and i tell you they look wrong. the original cast looked the part - phyllis was straight off the illustrations in the treasure seekers, and all three of the children have distinct personalities and are all terribly personable - jemima rooper was - well she wasn't bad - but she acts too much. jenny agutter's bobbie had subtlety and emotional depth and control and radiates a - goodness, that bobbie in the book had; the rooper bobbie is simply - acting, and rather obvious too, and not extraordinarily good, just the ordinary sort of kindness and politeness, without any - bobbiness. you only have to compare the scene where bobbie makes the discovery about her father's imprisonment and "why don't you tell someone." jenny agutter played mother well, as predicted, but different from dinah sheridan, and she seems much less present in this movie. i think if anyone wants to see it they must see the 1970 if only for dinah sheridan. (su-lin we'll watch it together when i come home, i promise) the other two children also, richard attenborough must not play wealthy gentlemen. he is no good. his face is too well-known. and he isn't kindly enough. nesbit says that looking very nice and looking like a nice person are not the same thing at all. william mervyn when he was the old gentlemen had an understanding face. distinguished too. and bernard cribbins. ohh.