Changes: The Three Railway Engines (Lost Live BBC Adaptation of "The Railway Series" Books Series; 1953)

Revision as of 16:18, 1 February 2021

Thomas & Friends is a children’s show adapted from the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry’s The Railway Series stories. While this is undoubtedly the most famous adaption of Awdry’s stories, at the same time, it was not the first. The first attempt was a live broadcast on June 14, 1953, by the BBC, however, the show didn’t fare well and caused a full series never to be produced.

Background

In 1953 the BBC approached The Railway Series editor Eric Marriott and inquired about the possibility of adapting two stories from The Railway Series for television on 14 June of that same year. The broadcast was to be done using 0O Gauge Hornby Dublo Models, while P.R. Wickham made the sets. This was to ensure that authenticity to the Author and Publishers requests. The episode was broadcast live from Lime Grove Studios on Sunday, June 14, 1953.

Live Broadcast

The stories that the BBC chose to adapt was Wilbert Awdry's last two stories from his first book ("The Sad Story of Henry" & "Edward, Gordon, and Henry"), in a new Children's Program TV show named The Three Small Engines. However, Douglas Mair (the director of Children's Television) had to deal with the O0 Gauge Models, Superimposed rain, effects, music, and narration by Julia Lang. The script was 'freely adapted' to ensure the broadcasts meet the ten-minute broadcast limit. The models were reported to jerk around as they moved. Other than that, the show went fine until the engine derailed. This was caused by the mistake of not switching the points before the engine arrived at them. To the surprise of the viewers, a hand picked up the engine and put it back on the rails!

Aftermath

The incident made the front of several newspapers a week later. This caused the June 21 broadcast to be delayed to June 28 and then canceled. Although numerous attempts were made to revive the series, all were unsuccessful until 1979.

Preservation

As the show was broadcast live and knowing the BBC's track record for preserving old content, it is no surprise that the broadcast is lost. It is highly unlikely that anyone recorded the single broadcast, although other shows from that day have been kept and are available on the internet, such as:

The live broadcast of the talk show " What's my line? ";
The transmission of "The Fleet awaits The Queen."

Gallery (Please don't put fake images here)

Possible filming models

Other

Original television airing schedule from Radio Times

Videos

The_Sad_Story_of_Henry_(1953) — The Sad Story of Henry (1953)

Fan recreation of what the 1953 broadcast would have looked like. Probably the most accurate.

The_Sad_Story_Of_Henry_UK-0 — The Sad Story Of Henry UK-0

The 1984 version

References

. http://www.sodor-island.net/thetvserieshistory.html. http://thomas-the-tank-engine-and-friends-youtube-series.wikia.com/wiki/Thomas_and_Friends

https://youtu.be/gpgw64XH55w

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Thomas & Friends''' is a children’s show adapted from the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry’s “The Railway Series” stories, while this is certainly the most famous adaption of the Awdry’s stories it was not the first. The first attempt was a live broadcast on June 14, 1953 by the BBC, however, the broadcast didn’t fare well and caused a full series never to be produced.
+'''''Thomas & Friends''''' is a children’s show adapted from the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry’s ''The Railway Series'' stories. While this is undoubtedly the most famous adaption of Awdry’s stories, at the same time, it was not the first. The first attempt was a live broadcast on June 14, 1953, by the BBC, however, the show didn’t fare well and caused a full series never to be produced.
 ==Background==
-In 1953 the BBC approached the Railway Series editor Eric Marriott and inquired about the possibility of adapting at least two stories from the Railway Series to television in June of that same year. The proposition was agreed to by the author. The broadcast was to be done using 00 Gauge Hornby Models, while the sets were reminiscent of the book illustrations. This was to ensure that authenticity to the Author and Publishers requests. The episode was broadcast live from Lime Grove Studios on Sunday June 14, 1953.
+In 1953 the BBC approached ''The Railway Series'' editor Eric Marriott and inquired about the possibility of adapting two stories from ''The Railway Series'' for television on 14 June of that same year. The broadcast was to be done using 0O Gauge Hornby Dublo Models, while P.R. Wickham made the sets. This was to ensure that authenticity to the Author and Publishers requests. The episode was broadcast live from Lime Grove Studios on Sunday, June 14, 1953.
 ==Live Broadcast==
-The story that the BBC chose to adapt was Wilbert Awdry's third story "The Sad Story of Henry". However, the director had to deal with the 00 Gauge Models, Superimposed rain, effects, music, and a narration by Julia Lang. The script was 'freely adapted' to ensure the broadcasts meet the ten-minute broadcast limit. The models were reported to jerk around as they moved. Other than that the broadcast went fine until the engine derailed. This was caused by the mistake of not switching the points before the engine arrived at them. To the surprise of the viewers, a hand picked up the engine and put it back on the rails!
+The stories that the BBC chose to adapt was Wilbert Awdry's last two stories from his first book ("The Sad Story of Henry" & "Edward, Gordon, and Henry"), in a new Children's Program TV show named '''''The Three Small Engines'''''. However, Douglas Mair (the director of Children's Television) had to deal with the O0 Gauge Models, Superimposed rain, effects, music, and narration by Julia Lang. The script was 'freely adapted' to ensure the broadcasts meet the ten-minute broadcast limit. The models were reported to jerk around as they moved. Other than that, the show went fine until the engine derailed. This was caused by the mistake of not switching the points before the engine arrived at them. To the surprise of the viewers, a hand picked up the engine and put it back on the rails!
 ==Aftermath==
-The incident made the front of several newspapers a week later. This caused the June 28 broadcast to be put on hold and later canceled and although numerous attempts were made to revive the series, all were unsuccessful.
+The incident made the front of several newspapers a week later. This caused the June 21 broadcast to be delayed to June 28 and then canceled. Although numerous attempts were made to revive the series, all were unsuccessful until 1979.
 ==Preservation==
-As the show was broadcast live and knowing the BBC's track record for preserving old content, it is no surprise that the broadcast is lost. It is highly unlikely that anyone recorded the single broadcast. Nothing is known to be left of this project, will probably never surface, and there is very, very little evidence that this broadcast ever occurred in the first place.
+As the show was broadcast live and knowing the BBC's track record for preserving old content, it is no surprise that the broadcast is lost. It is highly unlikely that anyone recorded the single broadcast, although other shows from that day have been kept and are available on the internet, such as:
+* The live broadcast of the talk show " What's my line? ";
+* The transmission of "The Fleet awaits The Queen."
-==Gallery==
+==Gallery (Please don't put fake images here)==
+===Possible filming models===
+<gallery spacing="small" orientation="landscape" navigation="true">
-==== Airing Images ====
+Henry1953.jpg
-[[File:0E6D8447-1412-4888-8EFC-A698AFD20394.jpeg|left|thumb|220x220px]]
+Gordon1953.jpg
-[[File:34B1034B-DFFF-4462-8367-0031C5447E87.jpeg|centre|thumb|220x220px]]
+ThomasandEdward1953.jpg
+JamesAndPercy1953.jpg
-===Possible filming props===
-<gallery>
-File:Henry1953.jpg
-File:Mm_1953_03_gordon.jpg
-File:ThomasandEdward1953.jpg
-File:JamesAndPercy1953.jpg
 </gallery>
 ===Other===
@@ Line 31: / Line 28: @@
 _IMG-20200519-WA0028.jpg|Original television airing schedule from ''Radio Times''|link=Thesadstoryofhenry1953
 20200606 171130.png|Newspaper article|link=Thesadstoryofhenry1953
+20190519_152947 (1).jpg|Possible end title card
-Screenshot 20200611 183457.jpg|Production photo of The Sad Story Of Henry (1953)|link=Thomas & Friends:The Sad Story of Henry (1953 BBC)
 </gallery>
 ==Videos==
-[[File:The Sad Story of Henry (1953)|thumb|center|335px|Fan recreation of what the 1953 broadcast would have looked like. Probably the most accurate.]][[File:The Sad Story Of Henry UK-0|thumb|center|400 px]][[File:The Sad Story of Henry - 1953 BBC Style|thumb|center|400px|A fanmade reconstruction of the moment a train derailed and was put back on.]]
+[[File:The Sad Story of Henry (1953)|thumb|center|335px|Fan recreation of what the 1953 broadcast would have looked like. Probably the most accurate.]][[File:The Sad Story Of Henry UK-0|thumb|center|400 px|The 1984 version]]
+==References==
+. http://www.sodor-island.net/thetvserieshistory.html. [https://thomas-the-tank-engine-and-friends-youtube-series.fandom.com/wiki/Thomas_and_Friends http://thomas-the-tank-engine-and-friends-youtube-series.wikia.com/wiki/Thomas_and_Friends]
+https://youtu.be/gpgw64XH55w
-==References==
-. http://www.sodor-island.net/thetvserieshistory.html
-. [https://thomas-the-tank-engine-and-friends-youtube-series.fandom.com/wiki/Thomas_and_Friends http://thomas-the-tank-engine-and-friends-youtube-series.wikia.com/wiki/Thomas_and_Friends]
 [[Category:Lost TV|Sad]]
 [[Category:Lost Recordings of Real Incidents|Sad]]
@@ Line 48: / Line 45: @@
 [[Category:Lost Britt Allcroft]]
 [[Category:Lost Kids shows]]
+[[Category:Lost CBBC]]
+[[Category:Most likley to be never found]]

Lost Media Archive