BBC2 Playhouse: Caught on a Train (1980)
Season 7, Episode 1
8/10
Almost flawless..superb drama
6 May 2001
I finally got to see "Caught On A Train" last night on BBC2 having heard a considerable amount of positive views about it over the years. It's a wonderful piece of film-making; detailing the events of a train journey from B to A featuring a number of fanciful characters. Peggy Ashcroft plays the part of a grand Austrian dame who still imagines that she has a troupe of servants around her. She hasn't and Peter (A youthful Michael Kitchen) fills that role with hostility, reluctance and almost submission.

The film concentrates on the relationship between those two while simultaneously introducing a number of peripheral characters:- the cold, austere American girl Lorraine whom Peter fancies but who hates everything about Europe; the irritating know-it-all Preston and a hideous fat man who has a carriage all to himself with a variety of electrical goods. A rather manic youth features sporadically too.

Peter scorns Frau Messner and her demanding ways initially but gradually begins to submit to her iron will. In many ways he is like her. The ending is surprising and quite moving....

"Caught On A Train" is a superb piece of television drama that is almost flawless throughout. Highly recommended

9/10
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