The ever-popular children’s series continues its new run of railway adventures. Based on the original stories written by the Reverend W Awdry, Thomas & Friends invites children into a world of imagination where the exploits of a cheeky little tank engine and his trusty pals reflect all manner of life lessons. This series retains the traditional liveaction animation alongside new CGI effects that make the engines’ mouths move as they talk and allow the human characters to walk around their railway world.
In Monday’s episode, Duncan feels hurt when, instead of a train ride, Mr Percival decides to take the twins for a birthday trip in a hot-air balloon. The upset engine lets the balloon fly away on purpose – but soon regrets his actions.
Tuesday’s instalment is ‘James Works It Out’. James ignores Hector the truck’s advice and sets off in the middle of some bad winter weather. But when he gets stuck in a snow drift, James soon wishes he had listened to Hector.
In ‘Tram Trouble’ on Wednesday, Toby is given the job of leading the parade at the first Great Waterton festival with a new tram called Flora. But Thomas thinks his friend would rather lead the parade on his own, so he distracts Flora by leading her off across the island.
In ‘Don’t Go Back’ on Thursday, Diesel challenges Thomas to a race backwards around Sodor. Unable to see where they are going, the two engines cause chaos everywhere.
And rounding off the week’s programmes on Friday is ‘Gordon Takes a Short Cut’. Gordon is a very proud engine and thinks he knows the railway better than anyone else. But when he takes a shortcut to the docks, he gets lost and refuses to ask for directions.
