Thomas & Friends series 3

Thomas (the Tank Engine) & Friends is a children's television series about the engines and other characters working on the railways of the Island of Sodor, and is based on The Railway Series 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 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 for UK audiences, taking over from Ringo Starr from the previous two series, while George Carlin narrated the episodes for US audiences.

This was the first series produced by Gullane Entertainment (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 on the TV broadcast compared to the original VHS releases.

Production

Filming

Series 3 was produced by The Britt Allcroft Company in association with Japanese television station Fuji Television. 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 closed down, with The Britt Allcroft Company becoming the sole producer. Producer Robert D. Cardona left before series 3, and Britt Allcroft took his place as co-producer alongside David Mitton.

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, the nominal main character. Awdry complained that the new stories would be unrealistic.

Awdry's complaints were directed at two aspects of the episode "Henry's Forest" in particular. One was that it was unrealistic to have a railway running through a forest, and that sparks from an engine's funnel could cause a wildfire. Britt Allcroft countered this aspect by claiming that she had seen a number of lines do the same thing.

The other aspect was that Henry stops to admire the view without alerting the signalman, which was in direct contravention of British Railways' Rule 55. This, Awdry argued, would never be allowed to happen in real life, and would be highly unsafe.

Episodes

Characters

Recurring cast

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 utilised the 2003 restoration of the series.

Episodes from the series have also made it to various compilation releases with other series.

Notes

References