The Sad Story of Henry (1953)

The Sad Story of Henry was a BBC television pilot which was broadcast on 14th June 1953. It was based on the Railway Series story of the same name.

Characters

 * Henry

Locations

 * Henry's Tunnel

Production
In 1953, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) approached then Railway Series editor Eric Marriot with the intention of getting the rights to adapt two stories from The Three Railway Engines for television. These episodes were scheduled to be broadcast during BBC Children's Hour on 14th and 28th June of that year, respectively.

00 scale model trains by Hornby were used to create the engines and rolling stock. P. R. Wickham designed the set to resemble C. Reginald Dalby's illustrations. The pilot was narrated by Julia Lang.

The pilot was transmitted live from Lime Grove Studios. It has been reported that, during the broadcast, an engine became derailed due to a set of points not being set correctly. On screen, a crew member's hand could be seen putting the aforementioned locomotive back onto the rails.

Wilbert Awdry, who watched the broadcast, complained about "jerky" model railway operation, the on-screen derailment (which he described as an "elementary mistake") as well as the "freely adapted" script required to fill in the ten-minute time slot. These complaints, combined with negative media attention, resulted in the cancellation of the planned subsequent episodes.

Availability
It is believed that this pilot no longer exists, as being a live broadcast, it was likely never recorded. No stills are known to exist, either, and there is very little information to suggest it existed.

Source

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