Prince Harry has loved Thomas the Tank Engine since he was a little boy. On his first day of nursery school, he carried a Thomas the Tank Engine-branded bag. I would be willing to bet that he’s already reading those stories to Archie too! So it makes perfect sense that Thomas the Tank Engine producers would have approached Harry about taking part in a “royal” themed show. Harry’s part – the introduction – was filmed in January and it’s just coming out now.
Prince Harry has recorded a special message to mark the 75th anniversary of his childhood favourite programme Thomas the Tank Engine. The Duke of Sussex, 35, spoke of his “fond memories” watching the show in an introduction to a special episode starring the Queen and a young Prince Charles. The celebratory episode, Thomas & Friends: The Royal Engine, will see Thomas travel to London for the first time on a mission to take Fat Controller Sir Topham Hatt to Buckingham Palace to receive an honour.
In his on-camera introduction – which was recorded in January before he moved to North America – Prince Harry reads from a book about Thomas while sitting in an armchair. He said: “Thomas the Tank Engine has been a comforting, familiar face to so many families over the last 75 years – entertaining, educating and inspiring children on important issues through exciting stories and characters. I certainly have fond memories of growing up with Thomas & Friends and being transported to new places through his adventures. I am very proud to have been asked to take part in this special episode. I wish Thomas & Friends a very happy anniversary.”
Prince Harry was a huge fan of the series growing up, and even carried a Thomas the Tank Engine bag on his first day at nursery in September 1987.
It’s a cool thing to do. It reminds me of Meghan’s voiceover work with Disney’s Elephant – both Harry and Meghan are clearly open to these kinds of wholesome, family-friendly gigs and it makes me wonder about all of those stories about their plans to start a production company in LA. If they do that – and I think they will – I could see them doing equally family-friendly projects, like producing animated short films or little web series for kids, stuff like that. It’s not going to be ALL Oprah docu-series and veterans’ mental health stuff.
Screencaps from Telegraph video.
Big thumbs up for Harry and Meghan
Lovely, although I will always love George Carlin. A mismatch that worked! Ringo was not too shabby, either.
My boys, now 18 and 20, loved Thomas of course!
My daughter, now 25 and autistic, was very obssesed with Thomas the Tank Engine; The books, TV series and the toy trains. She goes back to it from once a while. Can’t wait to watch Harry on Friday with my daughter. There are no shortage of stuff for H&M to get their teeth into.
Alex Baldwin narrating was very good too!
Anyone know where to access this episode and when?
@Abena
Harry is only reading the introduction.
An Australian is reading the Queen’s part, not sure who the other voice over actors are.
Ugh this is cute. I wasn’t much of a Thomas fan, but I remember my brother had a toy train from the series that if you whistled it would move? Something like that anyway. I don’t know if I would have seen the UK or the US version of the show growing up in Canada, though. I also remember watching Postman Pat, so we definitely got a good deal of British shows.
We also had Theodore Tugboat that came out of Halifax which I liked better than Thomas. They have a big to-scale version of him in Halifax as well which was really neat.
Is that Theodore the tugboat? He’s adorable!
I myself love Toad of Toad Hall.
LOVED everything i saw related to Mr. Toad as a kid haha.
Shining Time Station! I loved that show.
I’ve been watching the updated version of Thomas with my son and it is really not the same.
I wonder if William was approached to do this?
Seems like William should be doing these cute things since he has 3 kids.
Hell even Charles does cute work.
I thought this was so cute. My nephew was obsessed with Thomas the Tank and he had SO MANY of the trains and lordy they were pricey.
I worked at a small local Toy store in college that sold Thomas the Tank Engine. We used to talk about ( jokingly) that they were body shaming the Fat Controller.
This is so adorable and Harry was the perfect fit for it. They must have known what a fan he was when he was younger. Both of my boys like Thomas the Train.
I think its lovely. I love when hot celebs do this. My fav is tom hardy reading a story on a bbc kids program🤩(and I don’t have kids😂)
This is adorable. My brother was obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine and he and Harry are around the same age.
He also had a little Thomas t-shirt that he wore around the same age as the first day of school pic. Adorable. We’ve seen stores before about Harry gifting his niece and nephews books like Winnie the Pooh. I’m glad that he has such a fondness for reading. As someone with dyslexia, I’m sure he has a complicated relationship with it, but I bet he has great memories of being read those stories as a child.
This is so cute. My daughters loved Thomas when they were toddlers. This got so much press coverage. I’m surprised some salty person hasn’t asked why he gets to say the word” Royal “, lol.
The writers and producers from Disneynature’s Elephants released interviews, talking about How they asked Meghan to do the voiceover, but first they had to use her voice Against movie, so they used her speech at the UN to do it.
So what will the poster that swore she heard Harry asking Igor for work for Meghan, say now?
This is adorable. I have two small boys so my house is flooded with Thomas the Train and friends, as well as wooden tracks galore.
How dare he put this story out 2 days before Charlottes birthday, and 5 months before George’s birthday, and 12 months before Kate’s birthday, attention seeking narcissist!! lol.