The Spirit Of ST Trinian's

Gareth Evans talks to well-known professional photographer Jack Boskett about how he attempted to capture the feel of the original 1966 Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery film in 2019 through a series of black andwhite photographs. All photographs by Jack Boskett.

- Gareth Evans

It’s an all-time classic – a ‘goodies and baddies’ tale with a railway element. Who can forget the sights and sounds of Wickham trolleys, Austerity 0-6-0STs, a WD 2-10-0, DEMUs and a Class 11 racing each other in a manner akin to a childhood model railway – not to mention Dora Bryan shouting through a megaphone: “I am the headmistress of St Trinian’s and I claim the reward!”

The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery was a British film comedy set in the fictional St Trinian’s School, released in 1966. The railway scenes were filmed in colour on the closed, but not forgotten, Longmoor Military Railway, providing a valuable record of a network that became the subject of a failed preservation attempt.

Fast forward 43 years and Jack Boskett, a well-known professional photographer, whose work has appeared in a host of national and local newspapers, magazines, websites, books and journals, decided that it was time to try to recreate the feel of the original film with a black and white photoshoot.

In black and white

On August Bank Holiday Monday, Jack co-ordinated the shoot at privately-owned Gotherington station, which is located alongside the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (G/WR).

“The idea was to recreate the original 1966 film, in which a group of schoolgirls rescue the loot from the robbers and take it away by train while using a pump trolley and a Wickham trolley,” explained Jack.