As a young autistic kid growing up, Thomas the Tank Engine stories by the Rev W Awdry, and later, his son Christopher, were ...

Captivated by the charm of Awdry’s characters, she envisioned bringing the books to television. In 1984, her dream became a reality with the launch of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends ...

Thomas started out as a character in a series of books dating back to the 1940s by Rev. Wilbert Awdry, an English Anglican minister and train enthusiast. Awdry's The Railway Series revolved around ...

Britt Allcroft, a British television producer and writer who helped to develop “Thomas & Friends” based on “The Railway Series” books and its characters including Thomas the Tank Engine ...

Falling in love with the characters, she brought the book ... Rodgers pose in front of a Thomas the Tank Engine in London’s Leicester Square. (William Conran/PA Images via Getty Images) The ...

She discovered the character in a series of 1940s children's books and thought Ringo Starr would make a great Mr. Conductor on television.

The beloved blue locomotive was first imagined in the 1940s — he starred in stories Rev. Wilbert Awdry told his son. Allcroft adapted Awdry's The Railway Series into Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.

The TV producer was behind bringing the beloved children's series to life in the 1970s after securing the rights to adapt Reverend Wilbert Awdry’s Railway Series ...

Allcroft’s Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends first aired on ITV ... with locomotives and other vehicles operated by radios, while human characters were static figures. Stop motion was used ...

Allcroft's work not only introduced generations of children to the iconic character of Thomas the Tank Engine but also shaped the landscape of children's programming for nearly three decades.