The original adaptation of E. Nesbit’s much loved children’s book offered standout scenes of adventures in turn-of-the-century Yorkshire. This recent reworking shifts the action to 1944 and uses many of the original locations to create a bucolic background for the evacuated children who have been sent from the cities which are being bombed. No family wants the three inseparable children, until grandmother Bobbie (Jenny Agutter) persuades her daughter to take them in. Sensitively acted and beautifully shot, scenes unfold of the children settling into their new life while the war goes on. Into their midst comes a wounded soldier, and related adventure as they try to help him.

Notes by Alicia McGivern.