London: The series of stories about the railways in Britain built around Thomas the Tank Engine is being modernised for a "multicultural, gender-balanced" world with the inclusion of a number of Indian characters.
From this week children will come across engines named Ashima, Shankar, Rajiv as well as Noor Jehan, a royal express, while "strong girl characters" will include Charubala, a female controller in a sari.
Generations of kids have grown up with tales of Thomas the Tank Engine, based on The Railway Series books by Wilbert Vere Awdry, an English Anglican cleric and train enthusiast, and his son, Christopher. The first book appeared in 1946, with Thomas the Tank Engine, who was to become the central character, making his debut in the second.
The author set his books on the fictional island of Sodor in the Irish Sea, just off the English mainland near Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. Here in the happy long ago days before strikes by bolshy train drivers demanding ever increasing pay, rising fares and overcrowded carriages, all "The Fat Controller"(real name Sir Topham Hatt) had to deal with was the occasional recalcitrant engine refusing to come out of a tunnel.
Thomas the Tank Engine has evolved via the TV series into "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" and now just "Thomas & Friends" and the "Steam Team".
The franchise owners, Mattel Inc. of America, unveiled their new vision in London at a special premiere at BAFTA, the home of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. It was announced that Thomas would leave Sodor for the first time in 73 years. The new TV series will include 13 episodes in Sodor, five in China, four in India and four in Australia.
In updating the stories, the production team "collaborated with the UN Department of Public Information's Creative Community Outreach Initiative to develop content inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals most appropriate for a preschool audience... gender equality; life on land; responsible consumption and production; sustainable cities and communities; and quality education".
Ian McCue, senior producer at Thomas & Friends, said: "The show has undergone an evolution to remain relevant for the next generation of parents and children by opening up the world of Thomas & Friends.... The changes and new additions of characters and geographies will make the show more entertaining, inclusive and global."
Awdry's granddaughter, Claire Chambers, welcomed the changes, saying she thinks he would be "very happy" with them. "If the gender-balanced Steam Team encourages more girls to maintain an interest, then that can only be a good thing," she said.
