Britt Allcroft, who brought Thomas the Tank Engine to television, dies at 81

Britt Allcroft, creator of the beloved Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends children's TV series, has died.

The British-born producer died last week in Santa Monica at 81.

The death was confirmed by Brannon Carty, the creator of a documentary about Thomas fandom and a friend of the TV producer's. No cause of death was given.

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 a cast of anthropomorphic trains, including Thomas and his friends Gordon, James and Percy, all chuffing along on the imaginary island of Sodor.

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But Allcroft made Thomas an international sensation, starting in the mid-1980s with her TV adaptation narrated by Ringo Starr.

The series, which was later renamed Thomas & Friends, ran for more than three decades and featured other famous narrators such as George Carlin and Alec Baldwin. It has spawned TV spin-offs, movies, stage productions and a ton of merch.

Television producer and director Britt Allcroft in 1973.

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And the appeal goes beyond kids. The 2023 documentary An Unlikely Fandom is about grownups' passion for the little blue locomotive.

Filmmaker Brannon Carty — a lifelong Thomas fan — said he got to know Allcroft in her final years.

"She was just an incredible woman who was still a child at heart," Carty said in an interview with NPR. "But she was a businesswoman at the same time. So, she understood what children wanted, and also knew how to sell it." 

Allcroft was born in 1943 in Worthing, a town on England's south coast.

Beyond Thomas, her 1990s animated series Magic Adventures of Mumfie, about a sweet little gray elephant and his friends, was a particular hit.

"I wanted to do something very different from Thomas that would be very magical and epic and hopefully have lots of music in it, and would, in the same way as Thomas, help give children love, and security, and inspiration, and comfort, and fun," Allcroft told NPR in a 2013 interview.

Allcroft also said she aimed to create shows that gave children an antidote to hectic modern life.

"Children, they're multidimensional," she said. "And they still like that time where they can be with their stories, be with their characters, and feel that they're not being pushed."
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