'' Thomas (the Tank Engine) & Friends'' is a

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

about the engines and other characters working on the railways of the

Island of Sodor The Island of Sodor is a fictional island featured as the setting for ''The Railway Series'' books by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry (and his son Christopher), begun in 1945, and for the popular ''Thomas & Friends'' television series since 1984, altho ...

, and is based on

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 Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first published in May 1945 by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry. Twen ...

books written by the Reverend W. Awdry. This article lists and details episodes from the third series of the show, which was first broadcast in the UK between 25 February and 14 July 1992, and in the United States as part of ''

Shining Time Station ''Shining Time Station'' is an American children's television series jointly created by British television producer Britt Allcroft and American television producer Rick Siggelkow. The series was produced by Quality Family Entertainment (the Ame ...

'' in November 1991 (shortly after being released direct-to-video in the UK). In 1993, the last ten episodes were released in the United States on Shining Time Station. This series was narrated by

Michael Angelis Nicolas Michael Angelis (29 April 1944 – 30 May 2020) was an English actor. He was best known for his television roles as Chrissie Todd in ''Boys from the Blackstuff'', Martin Niarchos in '' G.B.H.'' and as a UK narrator of the British child ...

for UK audiences, taking over from

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

from the previous two series, while

George Carlin George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American comedian, actor, author, and social critic. Regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of countercul ...

narrated the episodes for US audiences. This was the first series produced by

Gullane Entertainment Gullane Entertainment PLC was a British independent production company which produced children's programming, including ''Thomas & Friends'' (1984–2021), ''Shining Time Station'' (1989–1993), and '' The Magic Adventures of Mumfie'' (1994–19 ...

(then known as The Britt Allcroft Company). Some episodes in this series have one title: the original from the American titles are shown underneath. In the US, this season was aired from 18 November 1991 to 7 June 1993 on Shining Time Station. On episodes 1–16, the UK narration uses a different

take A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production. Film In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each s ...

on the TV broadcast compared to the original VHS releases.Audio from ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends: Trust Thomas and other stories'' (1991).

Production

Filming

Series 3 was produced by The Britt Allcroft Company in association with Japanese television station

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially b ...

. It was divided into two parts, one part having 16 episodes and the other having ten. The series was filmed and produced in 1991. 16 episodes were released direct-to-video on November 11, 1991, in the UK, and aired in the United States from November 18 to December 27, 1991, as part of ''Shining Time Station''. They remained unaired in the UK until February 25, 1992, when the full series aired there. The last ten episodes aired on Shining Time Station in 1993. It was made at a cost of £1,300,000. Before production of series 3,

Clearwater Features Clearwater Features Ltd. was a British film production company (based first in Battersea and then at Shepperton Studios) that produced the first two series of the children's television series ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' from 1984 to 198 ...

closed down, with The Britt Allcroft Company becoming the sole producer. Producer

Robert D. Cardona Robert Daniel Cardona (born March 7, 1930) is an American television writer, producer, director and animator. He co-founded Clearwater Features, along with David Mitton, in 1980. Career Cardona has been based in the United Kingdom for much of ...

left before series 3, and

Britt Allcroft Britt Allcroft (born Hilary Mary Allcroft, 14 December 1943) is a British writer, producer, director and voice actress. She is the creator of the children's television series ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' (later re-titled ''Thomas & Friend ...

took his place as co-producer alongside

David Mitton David Nelson Godfrey Mitton (27 February 1939 – 16 May 2008) was a British director, producer, writer, model maker and special effects technician. He was best known for producing and directing the children's television programmes ''Thomas ...

Stories

The series was a combination of episodes derived from ''The Railway Series'', stories in the ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' magazines (written by Andrew Brenner, the show's head writer from 2013 to 2018) (uncredited), and a couple of original stories by Allcroft and Mitton. One of the primary reasons for diverging from the original books was that many of the stories not yet used featured large numbers of new characters, which would be expensive to produce. Another was that the producers wanted more stories about

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

, the nominal main character. Awdry complained that the new stories would be unrealistic (see Henry the Green Engine for more details).

Episodes

Characters

Introduced

* Oliver * Mavis * The Chinese Dragon * Bulgy * Farmer Trotter (''not named'') * Flying Scotsman (''not named; tenders and cab only; does not speak'') * Toad (''does not speak'') * City of Truro (''not named; faceless; does not speak'')

Recurring cast

* Edward * Henry * Gordon *

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

* Percy *

Toby Toby is a popular, usually male, name in many English speaking countries. The name is from the Middle English vernacular form of Tobias. Tobias itself is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew טוביה ''Toviah'', which translates to ''Good i ...

* Duck * Donald and Douglas * Bill and Ben * Diesel * BoCo * Annie and Clarabel * Troublesome Trucks * Terence * Bertie * Trevor * Harold *

The Fat Controller The Fat Controller, whose real name is Sir Topham Hatt, is a fictional character in ''The Railway Series'' books written by the Reverend W. Awdry and his son, Christopher Awdry. In the first two books in the series (''The Three Railway Engine ...

* Stephen Hatt * Mrs. Kyndley * Jen Cole * The Vicar of Wellsworth * Lady Hatt (''not named'') * Henrietta (''does not speak'') * Bridget Hatt (''cameo'') * Farmer Finney (''cameo'')

Home Media

United Kingdom

The first two-thirds of Series 3 debuted on VHS by The Video Collection in November 1991, as two volumes titled "Time for Trouble and Other Stories" and "Trust Thomas and Other Stories". The other third of the series was released on VHS in 1992 following the TV airings, titled "Escape and Other Stories". Video Collection International released a complete series VHS set in 2000, available as either a single-VHS or double-VHS release. It was soon released on DVD in 2004 as part of the "Classic Collection Boxset" before being released on its own in 2006. The 2012 re-release by

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (commonly written as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Soph ...

utilised the 2003 restoration of the series. Episodes from the series have also made it to various compilation releases with other series.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas And Friends (Series 03) 1991 British television seasons 1992 British television seasons Thomas & Friends seasons