Britt Allcroft, Thomas the Tank Engine series creator, dies aged 81
Britt Allcroft, Thomas the Tank Engine series creator, dies aged 81
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TV producer was behind the launch of the 1984 series ‘Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends’. Britt Allcroft, the creator of the beloved children’s series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, has died aged 81. In the 1970s, the TV producer secured the rights to adapt Reverand Wilbert Awdry’s Railway Series books featuring Thomas the Tank Engine for screen, which became the 1984 series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (later retitled Thomas & Friends).
Allcroft, along with her former husband, fellow TV producer Angus Wright, spent four years raising the funds to make the first 26 episodes of the series, which saw instant success with fans. The series followed Thomas, a blue, anthropomorphised fictional tank locomotive, and a fleet of his locomotive friends – Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy and Toby – as they worked each day on the railway under The Fat Controller.
Allcroft’s death was announced by filmmaker Brannon Carty, who knew Allcroft from making the 2023 documentary An Unlikely Fandom: The Impact of Thomas the Tank Engine. A statement from Allcroft’s family, shared by Carty, remembered Allcroft as an “adoring mother and wife and visionary producer”.
“It is with great sadness that I share with you the passing of Britt Allcroft,” the statement said. “The Allcroft-Wright family has asked me to bring this news to the Thomas fandom. The family is currently in mourning and asks that their privacy be respected at this time.
