\tBritt Allcroft, a British television producer and writer who helped to develop \u201cThomas & Friends\u201d based on \u201cThe Railway Series\u201d books and its characters including Thomas the Tank Engine, died on Dec. 25, 2024. She was 81.<\/p>\n
\tAllcroft\u2019s daughter, Holly Wright, confirmed her death to the New York Times. Director Brannon Carty announced her death on X earlier today, writing: \u201cIt is with great sadness that I share with you the passing of Britt Allcroft\u2026Britt was an adoring mother and wife. A visionary producer. She brought so much joy and happiness to people everywhere during her time on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBorn Hilary Mary Allcroft\u00a0in 1943, she later changed her name to Britt at the age of 16 as her career in British television expanded. \t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t \t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t \t \t\t \t \tHailing from Worthing, England, she served as a producer on a number of British television shows throughout the 1970s. Among her first projects was \u201cGet It-Got-It-Good.\u201d She eventually secured the rights to the \u201cRailway Series\u201d books from which the character Thomas the Tank Engine was adapted on screen.<\/p>\n
\tAllcroft\u2019s interest in the characters from this book series stemmed from her involvement in a 1979 documentary film about a railway in Sussex, which is featured in the books themselves. She had previously said, \u201cIt really didn\u2019t take me long to become intrigued by the characters, the relationships between them and the nostalgia they invoked.\u201d Allcroft later founded the Britt Allcroft Company alongside her husband and fellow producer Angus Wright. The two divorced in 1997.<\/p>\n
\tShe devoted four years to raise money for the production costs of the first 26 episodes of what would become \u201cThomas & Friends\u201d in 1984. The series had a positive critical reception and maintained popularity among young audiences globally. It was featured in the U.S. through the children\u2019s show\u00a0\u201cShining Time Station.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAllcroft went on to write and direct the 2000 feature \u201cThomas and the Magic Railroad\u201d and voiced the character of Lady. In 2023, she appeared in the documentary \u201cAn Unlikely Fandom,\u201d which was directed by Carty and chronicles the wide-spread internet fandom surrounding the \u201cThomas\u201d franchise.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThomas & Friends\u201d went on to run for 27 years and today has culminated in additional adaptations, spinoffs, films and merchandise opportunities such as \u201cDiesel: Impossible,\u201d \u201cThe Looney Diesels,\u201d and\u00a0\u201cThomas & Friends ERTL Adventures: The Biggest Christmas Adventure.\u201d \t<\/p>\n
\tAllcroft is survived by her daughter, son and grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Britt Allcroft, a British television producer and writer who helped to develop \u201cThomas & Friends\u201d based on \u201cThe Railway Series\u201d books and its characters including Thomas the Tank Engine, died on Dec. 25, 2024. She was 81. Allcroft\u2019s daughter, Holly Wright, confirmed her death to the New York Times. Director Brannon Carty announced her death […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}