David Mitton, 69, a director and screenwriter who adapted children’s favorite “Thomas the Tank Engine” for TV, died in London on May 23 after suffering a heart attack, his production company, Pineapple Squared Entertainment, said Thursday.
In 1984, Mitton directed a pilot for a show based on the Rev. Wilbert Vere Awdry’s stories about Thomas, a plucky blue train engine, and his locomotive friends. The show became an international hit and later a marketing phenomenon of spinoff toys.
Mitton went on to direct more than 180 episodes of “Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends” and wrote many of them. He was a consultant on the 2000 spinoff feature film “Thomas and the Magic Railroad,” narrated by actor Alec Baldwin.
Mitton served in the Royal Air Force before starting a career in children’s television in the early 1960s.
