She adapted the children’s book series to TV, creating a lasting cultural behemoth that spawned movies, merchandise and theme parks. By Isabella Kwai Britt Allcroft, a British producer, director and ...

Britt Allcroft, a British television producer and writer who helped to develop “Thomas & Friends” based on “The Railway Series” books and its characters including Thomas the Tank Engine, died on Dec.

She discovered the character in a series of 1940s children’s books and thought Ringo Starr would make a great Mr. Conductor on television. By Mike Barnes Senior Editor Britt Allcroft, the British ...