Britt Allcroft, Who Brought Thomas the Tank Engine to TV, Dies at 81

Britt Allcroft, a British producer, director and writer who adapted the antics of a cheerful, impetuous locomotive into a TV series, “Thomas & Friends,” that became a sprawling franchise and a longtime favorite of children and adults, died on Dec. 25 in Los Angeles. She was 81.

Her death was confirmed by her daughter Holly Wright.

Ms. Allcroft was the driving force behind bringing Thomas the Tank Engine, an animated locomotive first conceived in a series of children’s books in the 1940s by Rev. Wilbert Awdry, to television screens. The series spawned a movie, merchandise and even theme parks, ballooning into a billion-dollar franchise.

Her original adaptation was a live-action production with a small budget that premiered in 1984 on the British channel ITV as “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends,” later shortened to “Thomas & Friends.” Audiences were quickly drawn to the show’s life lessons packaged with catchy music, lush landscapes and an entertaining ensemble cast of humanlike locomotives. It became a runaway success that aired for more than three decades.

“Children live these days in a fast-paced world, but I don’t think children really change,” Ms. Allcroft said in a 1995 BBC documentary. “They need in their lives gentleness, comfort. They need fun, and they need stories that, whilst being entertaining for them, also help them interpret the world.”

Ms. Allcroft first encountered the series while researching a documentary on railroads. Earlier attempts to adapt the books to TV had faltered, but she pushed for the rights, envisioning a series with a narrator who hewed closely to the original books.

Her conviction led her to finance much of it herself, even mortgaging her house, she said in an 1995 interview with Australia’s “60 Minutes.”

As for the narrator, Ms. Allcroft had been searching for the right voice when she heard it on television: “I walked into the room and Ringo Starr was being interviewed on a chat show,” she said.

The former member of the Beatles became the first in a long line of stars to narrate the franchise, among them Michael Angelis, George Carlin, Alec Baldwin and Pierce Brosnan.

“This was a woman pioneering the TV industry in the early 80s, and it was mostly male dominated,” said Brannon Carty, the director of “An Unlikely Fandom,” a 2023 documentary on the series’ enduring appeal. “She had all these things going against her which would make the average person give up,” he said. “Despite all that, she took the lead.”

The series found its way to American children in 1989, when Ms. Allcroft brought it to PBS in the form of a spinoff series, “Shining Time Station,” that included clips from the British version of the show.

“She was a very good businesswoman,” said Rick Siggelkow, a television producer who collaborated with Ms. Allcroft. “She had a vision, and she had this intuitive understanding of children. She would just forge ahead.”

There was skepticism from some executives at first that the show would be a success, Mr. Siggelkow said, but Ms. Allcroft believed that children would be drawn to a slower-paced tale that had the intimacy of a bedtime story.

“There was a gentleness to Thomas that was really very different from everything else that was on the air,” he said in an interview.

“Shining Time Station” became a hit with American children, winning PBS some 1.2 million viewers — rivaling that of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” according to an article in The New York Times in 1991. The series was also aired internationally, seeding a global commercial demand for merchandise, from toys and train sets to posters and puzzles.

“Thomas & Friends” is now one of the world’s largest toy and television franchises for preschoolers, with analysts estimating annual global retail sales of more than $1 billion in 2016. Mattel bought Hit Entertainment, the British owner of Thomas, in 2012 as part of a $680 million deal.

After some criticism that the show’s characters lacked diversity, recent adaptations of the Thomas world, both onscreen and in merchandise, have added locomotives from Brazil, China, India and Mexico.

The franchise made it to the big screen with the 2000 film “Thomas and the Magic Railroad,” and a separate, animated version of the series, “Thomas and Friends: All Engines Go,” which aired on the Cartoon Network in 2021. A second film is in the works, according to Mattel.

Britt Allcroft was born Dec. 14, 1943, in West Sussex, England before moving to London.

When she was 16, she developed an interest in local theater and the work that went on behind-the-scenes. Ms. Allcroft joined the B.B.C. when she was 19, presenting on shows that included “Blue Peter,” on which she later moved to the production team.

In the early 1970s, she transitioned to Southern Television and later formed her own production company, Britt Allcroft Productions, under which she created television and stage shows while also working at local television stations.

At the end of the decade, she was hired to make a short documentary on British steam trains, and recalled the books from her youth.

She was married to Angus Wright, a television producer who worked closely with her on developing “Thomas & Friends” for the screen. They divorced in 1997.

In addition to her daughter, her survivors include a son and grandchildren.

The show’s longevity, enduring through generations, has made it a nostalgic favorite for adults, as well. In recent years, online communities have cropped up to celebrate the show and even create their own model versions of beloved episodes.

When Ms. Allcroft attended a screening of the 2023 documentary, “people were cheering and screaming” for her, said Mr. Carty, the director. “It was like the Super Bowl in there when she walked out.”

Ultimately, Ms. Allcroft said in the documentary, she wanted her world to be an escape.

“I wanted to make it so that any little child watching could feel that that’s where they could go,” she said. “That they weren’t alone, and they were comforted and that they were inspired.”

Emmett Lindner contributed reporting.