Britt Allcroft (born Hilary Mary Allcroft Coote; 14 December 1943 - 25 December 2024) was an English screenwriter, producer, director, and voice actress. She adapted

Wilbert Awdry Wilbert Vere Awdry (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997), often credited as Rev. W. Awdry, was an English Anglican minister, railway enthusiast, and children's author. He is best remembered as the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine and several other ...

's ''

The Railway Series ''The Railway Series'' is a series of British books about a railway known as the North Western Railway, located on the fictional Sodor (fictional island), Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first published in May 1945 by Wi ...

'' in the form of the children's television series ''

Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' is a British children's television series which aired from 9 October 1984 to 20 January 2021. Based on ''The Railway Series'' books by Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher, the series was developed for television by Brit ...

'' (later re-titled ''Thomas & Friends''). She created '' Shining Time Station'' (with Rick Siggelkow), ''Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales'', and '' Magic Adventures of Mumfie''. She also wrote, co-produced, and directed the film ''

Thomas and the Magic Railroad ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad'' is a 2000 children's fantasy adventure film written and directed by Britt Allcroft and produced by Allcroft and Phil Fehrle; the cast includes Alec Baldwin, Peter Fonda, Mara Wilson, Didi Conn, Russell Mean ...

'' (2000).

Early life

Allcroft was born Hilary Mary Allcroft Coote in

Worthing Worthing ( ) is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

, on 14 December 1943. Allcroft was raised in a modest household without a car or television during her early years. Growing up, she shared her home with an aunt who often recounted stories of her daily train commutes to London, igniting Allcroft's love for trains. Allcroft had several stories published in a magazine when she was 15. At the age of 16, she left school and changed her first name to Britt as her career in British radio and television gained momentum. She went on to create a succession of programmes for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and ITV during the 1970s and 1980s, including ''Moon Clue Game'', ''Dance Crazy'' and ''Keepsakes''. ''Mothers By Daughters'', produced for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, was broadcast by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

in the United States. She also worked in theatre, staging shows at the

London Palladium The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in Soho. The theatre was designed by Frank Matcham and opened in 1910. The auditorium holds 2,286 people. Hundreds of stars have played there, many wit ...

and

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the boundary between the Covent Garden and Holborn areas of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of London Borough of Camden, Camden and the southern part in the City o ...

Theatres.

Career

While making a documentary about British steam locomotives in August 1979, Allcroft met the Reverend

, author of the children's book series ''

''. She said "it really didn't take me long to become intrigued by the characters, the relationships between them and the nostalgia they invoked." She told him that she wanted to bring these stories to life and made an arrangement to secure certain rights through his then-publishers Kaye & Ward. In 1980, she co-founded Britt Allcroft Railway Productions (later known as

The Britt Allcroft Company Gullane Entertainment Limited was a British independent production company which produced children's programming, including ''Thomas & Friends'' (1984–2021), '' Shining Time Station'' (1989–1995), '' The Magic Adventures of Mumfie'' (1994– ...

) with her husband, television producer Angus Wright. It took Allcroft four years to raise the funding for, and create, a

first series First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

of 26 episodes in collaboration with director David Mitton. The first two episodes of ''

'' were aired together for the first time on British television on 9 October 1984, with narration by

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, us ...

and music by Mike O'Donnell and

Junior Campbell Junior Campbell (born William Campbell Jr., 31 May 1947) is a Scottish composer, songwriter and musician. He was a founding member, lead guitarist, pianist, and singer with the Scottish band Marmalade (band), Marmalade and co-wrote and produced s ...

. The success of the series in the UK, and the merchandising campaign that Allcroft had been organising since 1983, soon led to further success in other parts of the world. In 1989, she and American producer Rick Siggelkow created '' Shining Time Station'', a live-action children's sitcom fronted by the magical character of the miniature Mr. Conductor, who introduced two ''Thomas'' stories in each half-hour programme. ''Shining Time Station'' won a number of awards and significantly increased the popularity of the ''Thomas'' media franchise in the US. ''Shining Time Station'' lasted until 1995 and, in 1996, she created the short spin-off series ''Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales''. In 1994, Allcroft followed ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' and ''Shining Time Station'' with the cartoon-animated '' Magic Adventures of Mumfie'', in collaboration with director John Collins. Inspired by the books by Katharine Tozer, the production received critical acclaim and was seen worldwide. In 2008, several years after she left her original company, Allcroft revived the ''Mumfie'' library, and a reboot series eventually aired in 2021. Allcroft wrote and directed ''

'', a film based on the ''Thomas'' franchise, that was released in 2000. She also provided the voice of the character

Lady ''Lady'' is a term for a woman who behaves in a polite way. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the female counterpart of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. "Lady" is al ...

. The film was a critical and commercial failure. The poor box-office performance of the film caused Allcroft to resign as deputy chairwoman of her company in September 2000. Allcroft was an active member in the

British Academy of Film and Television Arts The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

and the Sundance Film Institute. She was also a fellow of the

Institute of Directors The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK's longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and inco ...

. Allcroft had expressed her disdain with the 2021 '' Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go'' cartoon series, which she had no creative control over, stating that the

reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

lacked the "magic" of the original series. In 2023, a documentary titled '' An Unlikely Fandom'' was released by filmmaker Brannon Carty, which centres around the ''Thomas & Friends''

adult An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social an ...

fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of Fan (person), fans characterized by a feeling of camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significan ...

. Allcroft is featured in the documentary via both archival interview clips of her and interviews taken at her home in April 2022. She appeared at the film's premiere along with Carty and Shining Time Station co-creator Rick Siggelkow.

Personal life and death

Allcroft married television producer Angus Wright in 1973. They had a son and daughter and divorced in 1997. Allcroft advocated against the use of animals in circuses, believing them to be violent and harmful to the minds of children. She stated, "If we teach children that it’s all right to dominate animals and use them for our amusement, how can we expect children to extend kindness to one another?" Allcroft died on 25 December 2024 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, eleven days after her 81st birthday. Her death was announced by filmmaker Brannon Carty on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

on 3 January 2025.

Filmography

References

External links