Fabulous Films

The adventures of an engine in the top left-hand corner of Wales…

Discovering the other day that there  was an origin story for Ivor the Engine’s musical pipe work system was as big a revelation to me as the discovery, back when the early episodes of Dad’s Army were first repeated, that there was this bloke called Joe Walker in the platoon, or that Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? was called that for a reason. Even if that was the only good thing about the new box set of Ivor stories from Fabulous Films, that would been enough to justify a purchase.

Luckily, it’s not.

That first black and white series is timeless children’s television though – I watched it with my five year old nephew, whose usual viewing tends to be of the more frenetic Sonic the Hedgehog style, and he sat without moving through all six episodes, utterly enthralled by Jones the Steam and the other inhabitants of the Ivor’s universe as they attempted to get the little engine accepted in the local choir. Oddly, he was less interested in the colour episodes and bailed after a couple – but he’s five, what does he know? I like to think, if he’d stuck with it, the opening up of Ivor’s world to include other engines, other people and even dragons, would have captured his imagination too.

Because it’s all wonderful stuff, from the first minute to the last. And everything is here, too – that six episode first series, the 26 black and white episodes which followed, and the full 40 episode of the later colour episodes from the 1970s. There’s even a couple of decent extras, if you can make the time to watch them!

Verdict: Perfect kids telly. 10/10

Stuart Douglas

Click here to order from Amazon.co.uk