In 1973, Andrew Lloyd Webber (who had read The Railway Series as a child) approached publisher Kaye & Ward with a proposal for his own musical television series, with songs from himself and lyricist Peter Reeves. Fourteen years before Thomas and Friends was aired, Ted Ray (sitting in a stationmaster's office) read out five Railway Series books in episodes that aired between 20 September to 2 October 1970. Nearly twenty years later, the BBC featured Awdry's stories in the television story-telling show Jackanory. After the "Sad Story of Henry" fiasco, the BBC did attempt to rescue the project by offering to give Awdry and the Railway Series publishers greater creative control over the production of the episodes, but the publishers declined the offer, preferring to focus on publishing new books for the series.
As a result, the second episode scheduled for 28 June 1953 was put on hold, and then later cancelled.
Awdry himself branded the episode as "unprofessional", and the point-switching debacle as an "elementary mistake". īy 23 June, news of the broadcast hit the front pages of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. Models moved jerkily, and all effects and music had to be superimposed. Reportedly, a failure to switch the points caused the model of Henry to derail and viewers of the live broadcast witnessed a human hand, said to be one of a crew member, picking him up and placing him back on the rails. The first episode (based on "The Sad Story of Henry") was broadcast live on the evening of Sunday 14 June 1953 from Lime Grove Studios. The engines were portrayed by 00 gauge Hornby Dublo models and driven on authentic sets in the style of the original illustrations. The first was in 1953 (when the editor of the Railway Series books, Eric Marriott) was approached by the BBC, who wished to use live-action model trains to re-create two stories from Awdry's first book, The Three Railway Engines.
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