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- “Bill, why don't you try and pull Ben back to safety?"
"I tried that, Percy, but Ben is too heavy."
"I'm not heavy!"
"Yes, you are! You weigh tonnes!” - ― Percy, Bill and Ben
Percy's Lucky Day is the fourteenth episode of the seventeenth series.
Plot
One morning, Percy is dropping off mail at Wellsworth. As the mail is unloaded, Percy was daydreaming but then got distracted by a man sneezing with a green handkerchief and mistaken it for the guard's green flag. Before the men unload all of the mail, Percy pulls away causing a sack of mail to burst open. While Percy waits for the letters to be picked up, Thomas passes by and comments about Percy having bad luck. Bill and Ben also pass and they disagree with Thomas; they think the accident was caused by sheer carelessness, neither of them noticing when a pumpkin falls off their own flatbed and smashes on the tracks.
Soon, Percy is hurrying along to try and make up for lost time. Suddenly, he spots some pumpkins on the line which have fallen off Bill and Ben's train. Percy brakes, but cannot help ploughing into the pumpkins. Some crates fall off his train and some of the pumpkin guts get stuck to his wheels. He has no choice but to wait until the mess is cleared up. Presently, Hiro pulls up and Percy tells him about how bad his day has started. Hiro tells Percy that he is just having an unlucky day. As Hiro clatters away, Percy recalls what Thomas had said earlier about bad luck and wonders if he is an unlucky engine.
Meanwhile at Maron station, the Fat Controller is talking sternly to Bill and Ben. To make sure that the rest of their load stays intact, the Fat Controller orders that one engine go in front and the other push from behind. Bill and Ben argue about who should go where and eventually Bill goes to the back of the train after both are given a stern look from the Fat Controller.
At Ulfstead Castle, Percy is delivering the mail. He tells Stephen about his spell of bad luck and Stephen gives Percy his old lucky charm - a horseshoe. Stephen's driver hangs the horseshoe around Percy's brake pipe. Percy is very grateful and sets off, but his wheels are still sticky and he jerks as he pulls away. Unbeknownst to Percy, the horseshoe falls off.
The next day, Percy is on time and does not have any accidents. His day is so lucky that the Fat Controller gives him an important delivery; he must take the Duchess of Boxford a present. As Percy does so, he believes his lucky charm is working unaware that he does not have it.
Later that day, things are still going well for Percy until he meets up with Bill and Ben. The twin at the front of the train, Ben, has derailed near an embankment and they are arguing about whose fault it is. Still feeling very lucky, Percy offers to pull Ben back onto the track. Percy tells the twins about his lucky horseshoe, but Bill is puzzled as he cannot see it. Realising it is not there, Percy begins to doubt that he can help the twins without luck on his side. Bill decides to have a go at pulling Ben back onto the track by himself, but only endangers Ben further. Percy can see the desperate situation Ben is in and knows that he must help with or without his lucky charm. Percy couples up the twins and starts to pull. The Fat Controller arrives just in time to see Percy pull Ben back onto the rails. The Fat Controller praises Percy, who rushes off to try and locate his missing lucky charm, leaving the twins arguing about who was to blame for the accident, much to Sir Topham's exhaustion.
Percy hurries back to Ulfstead Castle to tell Stephen that he has lost the lucky horseshoe. Stephen tells Percy that he never had the lucky horseshoe in the first place as it fell off as soon as he pulled away. Percy realises that the good luck he had was nothing to do with the horseshoe and he states that he does not believe in lucky charms anymore. Stephen reveals that he does not really believe in them either and had only given Percy the horseshoe to cheer him up.
Characters
- Thomas
- Percy
- Bill and Ben
- Hiro
- Stephen
- Sir Topham Hatt
- The Duchess of Boxford
- A Wellsworth Porter
- Henry (does not speak)
- Rosie (cameo)
- Winston (cameo)
- Annie and Clarabel (cameos)
- Sir Topham Hatt's Brown-haired Assistant (cameo)
- The Blond-haired Engineer (cameo)
- The Teacher (cameo)
- The Birdwatcher (cameo)
- Dowager Hatt's Friends (cameos)
- The Lady with the Big Hat (cameo)
- The Great Railway Show Judge (cameo)
Locations
Cast
UK
- Ben Small as Thomas
- Jonathan Broadbent as Bill and Ben
- Teresa Gallagher as the Duchess of Boxford
- Bob Golding as Stephen
- Togo Igawa as Hiro
- Keith Wickham as Percy, the Fat Controller and the Wellsworth Porter
US
- Martin Sherman as Thomas and Percy
- Jonathan Broadbent as Bill and Ben
- Teresa Gallagher as the Duchess of Boxford
- Bob Golding as Stephen
- William Hope as the Wellsworth Porter
- Togo Igawa as Hiro
- Kerry Shale as Sir Topham Hatt
Trivia
- Going by production order, this is the twenty-second episode of the seventeenth series.
- This episode marks first of a several things for Bill and Ben:
- Their first appearances in full CGI.
- Their first appearance together as well as Bill's first appearance since the special, The Great Discovery.
- Their first appearance and speaking roles together in an episode, along with Bill's first speaking role and episode appearance since the eleventh series episode, Hector the Horrid!
- Ben's first appearance since the twelfth series episode, Gordon Takes a Shortcut.
- Jonathan Broadbent joins the voice cast.
- In the opening shot, a four-leaf clover which represents good luck is present in the bottom right-hand corner of the frame.
- This is the second time a green object was mistaken for a green flag, the first was in the second series episode, Wrong Road.
- Bill and Ben gain Birmingham accents in this episode.
- When first hung, the horseshoe is upside down, which is a symbol of bad luck.
- This episode marks the only time Teresa Gallagher voices the Duchess of Boxford in the US dub.
- From this episode onwards, Rosie gains a funnel-mounted lamp of Ferdinand's design.
- The episode's plot and title are similar to the eleventh series episode, Henry's Lucky Day and the twenty-fourth series episode, Thomas' Not-So-Lucky Day. The life lesson segment at the end of the latter even references this episode.
- In the Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Baltic Russian and one of the Vietnamese dubs, the UK dub can be heard in the background as a dubbing track was not used.
Goofs
- The narrator says that Percy couples up to Ben, but he actually couples up to Bill.
- When Henry arrives at Wellsworth, he has three coaches, but when he leaves, he has two.
- In the first two shots at Wellsworth, there is a buffer floating above the middle track.
- The sign at the Duke and Duchess of Boxford's Summer House is blank.
- When Hiro leaves after saying "You're just having an unlucky day", his cab is not rendered properly and he appears to have no interior nor crew.
Merchandise
In Other Languages
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Home Media Releases
Episode
| #01 Kevin's Cranky Friend | #10 Not Now, Charlie! | #19 The Missing Christmas Decorations |
| #02 Scruff's Makeover | #11 The Lost Puff | #20 The Frozen Turntable |
| #03 Wayward Winston | #12 The Thomas Way | #21 Away from the Sea |
| #04 Gordon Runs Dry | #13 The Phantom Express | #22 Gone Fishing |
| #05 Calm Down Caitlin | #14 Percy's Lucky Day | #23 The Afternoon Tea Express |
| #06 Steamie Stafford | #15 Bill or Ben? | #24 The Smelly Kipper |
| #07 Henry's Hero | #16 Too Many Fire Engines | #25 No More Mr. Nice Engine |
| #08 Luke's New Friend | #17 No Snow for Thomas | #26 Thomas' Shortcut |
| #09 The Switch | #18 Santa's Little Engine | |