Now, for something completely different.

Most every child born from the 1980s onwards will be well aware of the hugely popular animated television series "Thomas And Friends" based on Rev. Wilbert Awdry's "The Railway Series" books. For me this was "Classic series" by Britt Allcroft and David Mitton which first aired in 1984 under the original title "Thomas The Tank Engine And Friends" and used radio-controlled live action models. (The "Classic series" would in time be superseded by the "New series" and eventually the "CGI series", but I digress).

Music for the Classic series was composed by Junior Campbell (formerly of the band Marmalade) and Mike O'Donnell. Each recurring character had their own theme tune, which would often evolve over time as variations and rearrangements of the original theme. For the first two series, the music was performed entirely on the Roland Jupiter 6, with more instruments appearing in subsequent series. Later on, full length songs would accompany the franchise, both as instrumental karaoke-style videos with roll-along lyrics, and vocal guide versions. "Harold, the Helicopter" appeared around the time of Series 5. I couldn't resist also including Harold's original theme tune, in all its synthesized glory!

I recorded this song about a week ago and was biding my time as regards to uploading it - the plan had been to wait until the start of July, when Christopher Awdry (son of the Reverend, and whom also wrote many Railway Series books himself after his father retired) will turn 80 years young. Just a few days after him, the original voice-over artist from the TV series - none other than Sir Ringo Starr - will celebrate the same milestone.
However, I have rather sadly just learned of the death of the actor Michael Angelis, who narrated the show for more than 20 years. It therefore seemed both poignant and prudent that I release my recording now. I hope you enjoy it.