Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends

Welcome to the Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends guide at TV.com. The show is about a tank engine, Thomas, and his friends who live on the Island of Sodor. Together, the engines work on the railways under the supervision of Sir Topham Hatt, the "Fat Controller." Thomas The Tank Engine actually dates back to 1945, when the Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry created The Railway Series to amuse his son Christopher, who was suffering from measles. His wife Margaret encouraged him to publish the stories and he did so, going on to add another book each year (except 1947 and 1971) until 1972. Wilbert's son Christopher later continued The Railway Series up to 40 books. In 1984 Britt Allcroft decided to turn the stories into a TV series with Ringo Starr as the narrator. He was replaced by Michael Angelis in 1991, who still narrates today. (Full Narrator listings below.) When the series was shown on PBS in the US, it was part of a show called Shining Time Station. 2 of the show's narrators played Mr. Conductor in the series, Ringo Starr in the earlier episodes and George Carlin later. Since the show ran from 1989 to 1993, only early episodes of Thomas are part of it. A note on writers: In the episode guide, the writers are as follows: If the episode is based on a Railway Series book by the Rev W Awdry, he will be credited as the writer. If the episode is based on a Railway Series book by Christopher Awdry, he will be credited as the writer. If the episode is not based on a Railway Series book, Britt Allcroft and David Mitton will be credited as the writers since they wrote it. From Season 6 the writers are varied. Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends is Based on The Railway Series by The Reverend W. Awdry. Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and Thomas & Friends are trademarks of HIT Entertainment Inc.