Thomas &amp; Friends
Thomas & Friends (originally known as Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends or simply Thomas the Tank Engine; also known as Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! in the twenty-second series) is a British children's television series. In the United Kingdom, it had its first broadcast on the ITV network in Great Britain in 1984. In the United States, it had its first broadcast on "Shining Time Station" in 1989. It is based on "The Railway Series" of books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher Awdry.
Towser
The series was later spawned into an animated television series narrated by Roy Kinnear and made by British animation studios King Rollo Films (best known for making well known animated works for children such as "King Rollo", "Mr Benn", "Spot" and "Horrid Henry") running for one season and 26 episodes. It was made in 1982 and aired on ITV as part of Children's ITV on 11 September 1984 and ending on 16 October on the same year (The episode Towser and the Flight also aired on 9 October 1984 on the same day when the first season of the original series of the British long running children's series "Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends" debuted). The series was also repeated on ITV in 1988 for a short while and aired one last time in August of that year as part of the summer morning programming on Children's ITV. Towser later aired on Channel 4 in 1990 and was later shown as part of their block of classic children's television series "Take 5" in 1994 along with other children's programmes that had previously aired on other networks such as "Paddington", "Mio Mao", "The Magic Roundabout", "Willo the Wisp", "Tales of the Riverbank", "Mr Men", "Fred Basset", "Ivor the Engine" and "Roobarb". It has also been broadcast on cable television on The Children's Channel and was shown there numerous of times since 1985 and kept airing until 1996.