Britt Allcroft, the producer who tailored Thomas the Tank Engine & Pals for tv, has died. She was 81.
In accordance with Allcroft’s daughter Holly Wright, she died on Wednesday, Dec. 25 in Los Angeles, The New York Occasions reported.
Allcroft was liable for bringing Reverend Wilbert Awdry’s books The Railway Sequence to British TV in 1984 as a youngsters’s present narrated by Ringo Starr. The collection ran for twenty-four seasons by way of 2021, earlier than the animated collection Thomas & Pals: All Engines Go debuted on Netflix. The present additionally spawned a number of specials and films, in addition to common toys and merchandise.
In 1979, Allcroft met Awdry whereas making a documentary about British steam engines. Falling in love with the characters, she introduced the e book to tv then-husband, producer Angus Wright.
Allcroft wrote and directed the 2000 function adaptation Thomas and the Magic Railroad, which premiered in theaters with a star-studded solid that included Mara Wilson, Alec Baldwin and Peter Fonda.
Didi Conn, Britt Allcroft, Mara Wilson and Michael E. Rodgers pose in entrance of a Thomas the Tank Engine in London’s Leicester Sq.. (William Conran/PA Photos by way of Getty Photos)
The franchise’s long-running success was the topic of final yr’s Brannon Carty-helmed documentary An Unlikely Fandom. Carty introduced her loss of life in a statement on X, remembering her as an “adoring mom and spouse,” in addition to “a visionary producer.”
“Through the years of figuring out Britt, we developed an in depth connection. It was really a privilege to have her as each a mentor and a pal, and I’m so glad that so many followers have been capable of meet her on the New York screening of An Unlikely Fandom,” he wrote. “It was an absolute honor to have her in our documentary, and he or she has since remained a vocal supporter of our trigger.
“I believe I can converse for the whole thing of the fandom after I say that each one of us will deeply miss her. With out her, so many people would by no means have met,” added Carty.
Allcroft additionally tailored the 1994 collection Magic Adventures of Mumfie from Katharine Tozer’s books.
