Ben Small

"The responsibility is immense. He is so well loved."

- Ben Small commenting on voicing Thomas, 2009 Metro article

Ben Small (born 1971) is a British actor descending from Canadian stock, who provided voices for the UK and US versions of Thomas and Friends until the end of the eighteenth season in 2014, when his contract with HiT Entertainment was not renewed and the executives wanted to have a fresh new voice for Thomas.

Other credits include, "Lunar Jim", "Harry and his Bucket Full of Dinosaurs", "Clifford the Big Red Dog", "Watch My Chops", "Make Way for Noddy", and "Wallace and Gromit's Cracking Contraptions".

UK

 * Thomas (Hero of the Rails - eighteenth season)
 * Toby (Hero of the Rails - eighteenth season)
 * Ferdinand
 * Rheneas (Blue Mountain Mystery - eighteenth season)
 * Flynn (seventeenth and eighteenth seasons)
 * Troublesome Trucks (sixteenth season - eighteenth season)
 * Owen (Blue Mountain Mystery - eighteenth season)

US

 * Stanley
 * Charlie (sixteenth season - eighteenth season)
 * Rheneas (Blue Mountain Mystery - eighteenth season)
 * Flynn (seventeenth and eighteenth seasons)
 * Troublesome Trucks (sixteenth season - eighteenth season)
 * Owen (Blue Mountain Mystery - eighteenth season)

Songs

 * I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside (performed)

Trivia

 * He also sings the song, The Wheels on Thomas, which can only be heard at Day Out with Thomas events in the UK.
 * HiT Entertainment wanted him to concentrate on Thomas alone, but it was later decided that he could also voice Toby if he wished to do so. This then snowballed because HiT wanted to have the same voices for some characters in both the UK and US versions.
 * Small said in an interview with the Sodor Island Fansite that he was a fan of the Railway Series in his youth. He said that he listened to the Johnny Morris recordings as a child.
 * Small and Keith Wickham previously worked together on the BBC children's television series, "Watch My Chops" (aka "Corneil & Bernie"). Wickham voiced Corneil the dog and Small voiced Bernie, his dogsitter.
 * He originally auditioned for the part of Thomas in the US version, but did not get the part.
 * He and TUGS voice actors Ian James Corlett, Michael Donovan, and Richard Newman voiced characters on "Make Way for Noddy".