User Reviews

This enchanting tale of a small railway station in the English countryside will appeal to adults and children alike. There is plenty of plot going on with an orphanage that must be saved (echoes of The Cider House Rules), a blossoming romance (featuring Laura Fraser - yum yum), and an impending visit to the station by HRH Queen Victoria. And it's all held together by a feisty little Jack Russell called Jim who always saves the day and will charm the pants off of anyone who watches it. Wonderful.

A Christmas treat from the BBC, recently repeated for the May holiday, this story is an enchanting little piece centring on a station porter (Charlie Creed-Miles), a small hero dog, Jim, a little orphan boy (Thomas Sangster), a father and son at odds with each other about industrial and social progress (Frank Finlay and David Haig), and a feisty schoolmistress who only wants to fend for herself (Laura Fraser). George Cole returned from screen retirement to play the soon-to-be-retired stationmaster; other familiar faces in this include John Thomson and Nadia Sawalha. Everyone in the cast is excellent.

The drama revolves around both the plight of the orphans and the impending visit of Queen Victoria (Prunella Scales). Jim the dog does tricks but his heroism in saving the life of the Queen shows that animals really are often more sensitive and quick-thinking than people.

Certainly buoyed up by Mark Wallington's writing and John Roberts' direction, this is a feature-length drama with much to enjoy for all the family.

My Nan taped this for us when it was on the TV.I can`t think why,but I am not at all sorry she did.I loved it,so did my brothers and sister. It should appeal to dog lovers,Jim was soo sweet:-) I wish it would turn up on video.Why hasn`t it?

10/10

I'm really annoyed that the movie about station Jim wasn't set in Slough! Station Jim was a real dog, and you can see him stuffed on platform five of Slough Station.

I mean, I know Slough isn't the quaintest of towns, but it's horribly inaccurate to make a movie about our one hero not set in our town! It's like making a movie where Batman fights crime in Metropolis instead of Gotham.

They could've filmed it somewhere else and at least pretended it was in Slough.

I personally thought that the film itself was a little too quaint, much too "hollywood" Victorian england, and not gritty enough. I know that it's supposed to be a family film, but still, it just seemed a bit weak in all fields to me.

What a wonderful movie. There is no female nudity (what a relief), no cursing, no coarse American culture in it. There are some scary moments in it that might frighten children and frightened me somewhat, but after all of that there is a happy ending, which is refreshing. The film quality is surprisingly clear and realistic. The children are adorable. The trained dog is amazing. Thomas Sangster is so very adorable as Henry, an orphan who attaches to Jim. According to a special feature included on the DVD, which you should read, this is based on a real dog that did live and perform at a railway station to raise money for an orphanage. I highly recommend this film to people who love dogs, Victoriana, British good manners and 19th century costumes.

Supposed to be set on the GWR but not a GWR loco in site. A little verisimilitude would be appreciated. A chocolate box view of Victorian England. A pleasant diversion for kids but hardly a lesson in railway history.

A wonderful film - a bit kitsch but when taken in the context of a piece of period entertainment for kids, it's great!

The story is a about a railway station an orphanage, the orphans and their new young teacher, a mean property developer who arranges for a fire at the orphanage so he can re-develop it, a station porter wanting to be stationmaster, and a Jack Russell called Jim who saves Queen Vic and the orphanage.

Shame it's not available on DVD - far far better than many "kids" films made at 200 times the budget (e.g. Spy kids..)

My daughter wants to know why train stations don't look like that any more. me too...