Britt Allcroft, the creator of the “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends” collection, has died at age 81, filmmaker Brannon Carty introduced on X.
Allcroft was most identified for producing standard kids’s exhibits that includes Thomas the Tank Engine after acquiring the rights to adapt Reverand Wilbert Awdry’s “Railway Series” books within the Eighties.
The present first launched as “Thomas & Friends” in 1984 earlier than being renamed “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.”
“Over the years of knowing Britt, we developed a close connection,” wrote Carty, who directed the 2023 documentary “An Unlikely Fandom: The Impact of Thomas the Tank Engine.”
“It was truly a privilege to have her as both a mentor and a friend, and I’m so glad that so many fans were able to meet her at the New York screening of ‘An Unlikely Fandom.’ It was an absolute honor to have her in our documentary, and she has since remained a vocal supporter of our cause.”
“I think I can speak for the entirety of the fandom when I say that all of us will deeply miss her. Without her, so many of us would never have met,” Carty added.
Allcroft was born within the small seaside city of Worthing within the southern a part of England.
The storyteller acquired her begin in tv when she was 21 and produced exhibits like 1967’s child’s quiz present “Get It-Got It-Good” in addition to others.
However her exhausting work didn’t acquire steam till the Eighties when she created the beloved train-themed present that introduced smiles to younger audiences internationally.
Allcroft and her then-husband, selection present producer Angus Wright, joined forces to create a manufacturing firm that went on to launch “Thomas & Friends” in 1984.
The present even earned a 1985 BAFTA nomination for Greatest Animated Movie.
The collection, which featured narration by Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and humorist George Carlin, was renamed to “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends” and crossed the Atlantic in 1989 to have segments air on the PBS collection “Shining Time Station.”
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The manufacturing duo was married for 20 years and divorced in 1997 — only one 12 months earlier than “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends” ended.
A number of spinoffs continued with each of their names listed as producers although Wright retired within the late Nineteen Nineties and ultimately died in 2012. The exes shared two children.
Allcroft later tried her hand at directing spinoffs within the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s however solely directed 4 initiatives — three of which have been spinoffs of the beloved kids’s present.
The collection has since had dozens of spinoffs together with the newest vacation particular “Thomas & Friends ERTL Adventures: The Biggest Christmas Adventure” which premiered in Dec. 2024.
