Thomas & Friends is a British children's television series, first broadcast on the ITV network on 4 September 1984. It is based on The Railway Series of books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry. These books deal with the adventures of a group of anthropomorphised trains and road vehicles who live on the fictional Island of Sodor. The books were based on stories Awdry told to entertain his son Christopher during his recovery from measles. Many of the stories are based on events from Awdry's personal experience. The show was originally produced with live action... model animation at Shepperton Studios in England. The use of moving models was seen at the time of the show's conception as an effective method of animating the stories. Locomotives and other vehicles were operated by radio, while humans and animals were static figures. Stop-motion was occasionally employed for instances in which a human or animal character would move. Hand-drawn animation was used in Series 3 to create bees.
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| On the air: | September 4, 1984 |
| Number of seasons: | 13 |
| Network: | Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Public Broadcasting Service, ITV, Norsk Rikskringkasting, VH1, BBC Kids, TVOntario, TV3, Discovery Kids, Treehouse TV, RTM2, Rai Tre, Rai Due, Super RTL, The Children's Channel, Associated Broadcasting Company, PBS KIDS Sprout, Rede Manchete, 3ABN, Cartoon Network Philippines, Noggin, Nick Jr. Australia, CBeebies, PBS Kids, Teletoon, CITV, Five, Nick Jr. 2, ITV1 |
| Producer: | Britt Allcroft |