Period TV makers: please give a little more thought to trains

By Brian Clegg

Every now and then I see something anachronistic in a period drama on TV and I can’t stop nerd mode from firing up. It’s quite often about trains. For some reason, period drama makers can spend vast amounts of money making sure the clothes look right (say), and often get the cars right. But, they seem to think, ‘all trains are the same, aren’t they?’

One of the more entertaining examples of this was in the 60s Yorkshire-set police drama Heartbeat. Britain entirely phased out stream engines in 1968, but they carried on regardless in Heartbeat. However, this was totally (and impressively) pushed into the background in one of the early shots in the acclaimed 2012 ITV drama Mrs Biggs, which we’ve just got round to watching.

Sheridan Smith does a brilliant job of portraying Charmian Biggs, the wife of train robber Ronnie Biggs. The two met on a train in the opening scene of the programme, arriving at a London terminus. This was in 1957. You can see the alleged terminus in the photo above. In it, you can see three diesel locomotives. Two are what were known as Brush type 4s in my youth. They date from the early 1960s. But the real standout is the blue engine on the right.

This has a magnificent total of three problems. Firstly, these unusual locomotives were also from the early 60s. Secondly they were known as ‘Westerns’ because all their names began with ‘Western’ – but it also reflected that they were only ever used on the Western region – the old GWR – and would never be on a train in a London terminus from South or North London*. But most glaring of all, and something even non-enthusiasts might realise – the blue BR livery was not introduced until the mid-60s. It did not exist in 1957 and stands out like the proverbial sore thumb.

In the Wikipedia entry for the show we are told that the ITV press pack proudly announced ‘Scenes of the Great Train Robbery were recreated on the East Lancashire Railway using a locomotive from the same batch of engines involved in the 1963 raid.’ Frankly, there’s not a lot of point going to this effort when the whole thing opens with such an obviously anachronistic image.

Rant over. But really, TV and film folks: try a little harder.

* I’m not sure which terminus this (very small) building is supposed to be. At one point in the programme the characters appear to be travelling from Reigate, but I think Charmian Biggs was brought north of London. Either way, it definitely wasn’t the west.

Image from Mrs Biggs reproduced for reference purposes.

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Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.