Country of origin United Kingdom Original network ITV | No. of episodes 26 | |
Original release 2 September (1986-09-02) –
23 December 1986 (1986-12-23) | ||
Thomas & Friends (previously known as 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 Rev. W. Awdry.
Contents
This article lists and details episodes from the second series of the show, which was first broadcast in 1986. This series was initially narrated by Ringo Starr for the U.K. audiences, who re-dubbed 16 episodes for the U.S. audiences on Shining Time Station. The entire series was later re-dubbed by George Carlin for the U.S. audiences.
Most episodes in this series have two titles: the original titles from the U.K. broadcasts are shown on top, while the American-adapted titles are shown underneath. However, all episodes in Series 2 had the same name in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
This was the last series to be narrated by Ringo Starr, as well as the last series to be produced by Robert D. Cardona.
It was produced by Clearwater Features Ltd. for Britt Allcroft (Thomas) Ltd.
Stories
Christopher Awdry was commissioned to write a new Railway Series book as source material for the second series. Three stories from More About Thomas the Tank Engine provided additional roles for Bertie the Bus, Terence the Tractor, and Harold the Helicopter. The episodes "Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree" and "Thomas and Trevor" were both one-off stories written by Christopher. The following series would begin to use original stories by the production staff, with some of the remaining Railway Series stories deemed "repetitive and too 'story-book' orientated".
Filming
Early in production, a third episode based on The Twin Engines was due to be filmed, based largely on the story "The Missing Coach." The model crew had gone as far as filming scenes on the Tidmouth Station set with Thomas arriving at the station, before Britt Allcroft decided the episode had too little action and its storyline would be too difficult to understand by younger viewers. Several promotional stills from the filming of that episode have surfaced in various Thomas publications, while David Mitton was believed to be in possession of the original film footage.