Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE AND FRIENDS
Made by: Cleanwater/Britt Allcroft/Central Television
Shown on: ITV
Years shown: original series 1984-6, but he's still puffing along

The Reverend Wilbert Awdry first brought Thomas and pals to life in his 1940s storybooks, but it was another four decades before the chuffing one finally got his own television series. Thomas the Tank Engine came to be known and loved all over the world, despite its simple concept, and the fact that it was just like watching your uncle’s model railway in action - the model people didn’t even move! The series was set on the dubiously-named, but peaceful and charming Island of Sodor, where Sir Topham Hat - known to all the engines, rather cruelly, as The Fat Controller - was a Winston Churchill figure, and ran the railway system. Unlike most controllers, his engines were alive, with their own personalities, and were always causing him some kind of grief.

The hero was the blue number 1 engine, Thomas, who was usually sensible, but sometimes got a bit too big for his pistons. There were also (intake of breath): number 2 engine Edward, green number 3 engine Henry, James the mixed-traffic engine, Percy the saddle tank, Toby the tram engine, Montague the Great Western engine (nicknamed ‘Duck’), Donald and Douglas the twin black engines, Gordon the blue engine, Oliver the little green engine, and Diesel the, er, diesel engine. Diesel was ably assisted by Daisy, the diesel rail car, and Thomas himself often had a threesome with Annie and Claribel, his amiable passenger carriages. Operating outside the train yard were Terence Tractor, Harold Helicopter, Bertie Bus, and Ringo the Beatle - oh sorry, he was the programme’s narrator.

Thomas the Tank Engine seemed to run forever, but there was one episode that I must have seen half a dozen times, and that was the one where vain and imperious Gordon refused to pull a coal truck, and as a penalty, the Fat Controller had him bricked into a tunnel. This stuck with me over the years because I always felt that the punishment hardly fitted the crime - poor Gordon was stuck in there for ages, and he became dirtier and dirtier, and he started to rust. Still brings tears to my eyes.

SQUARE EYES RATING: 7/10

(Thanks to www.worldofbubble.com for the borrowed pic)