It turns out one of the stalwarts of our childhoods wasn't quite as pure as it seemed at the time. A scene from Thomas The Tank Engine has re-emerged after it was posted on Twitter, with users describing how the 'innocent' programme seems more like a horror movie.
Twitter user Tristan Cooper posted the video with the caption: "There's a Thomas the Tank episode where a stubborn train is punished by being entombed alive forever and it's worse than any horror movie." Watch it here:
Credit: Gullane Entertainment
The clip is taken from episode three of Thomas & Friends. The episode tells the tragic story of 'stubborn' train Henry who is 'sentenced to death' after refusing to go to work in case it ruins his nice green and red paintwork.
The Fat Controller (who refuses to participate in the punishment citing 'doctor's orders') demands that Henry is pulled out with a rope and pushed out. But after failing to budge he then orders he must be 'sentenced to death'.
In the clip he can be seen speaking to poor Henry commanding: "We shall take away your rails and leave you here for always and always and always."
The camera the pans out with Henry trapped behind a brick wall as he looks increasingly worried about his situation - in a finally creepy touch, the voice-over (provided by former Beatle Ringo Starr) then adds: "I think he deserved his punishment, don't you?"
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As New Yorker staff writer Jia Tolentino explained in a recent article, the episode is just one example of the 'repressive, authoritarian soul' of the series created by Anglican minister, the Reverend Wilbert Awdry in 1942.
She writes: "It is clear from his work that Awdry disliked change, venerated order, and craved the administration of punishment. Henry wasn't the only train to receive a death sentence. In one episode, a manager tells a showoff engine named Smudger that he's going to 'make him useful at last', and then turns Smudger into a generator, never to move again.
"In another episode, a double-decker bus named Bulgy comes to the station and talks about revolution..."
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"Free the roads from railway tyranny!" he cries. He is quickly labelled a 'scarlet deceiver', trapped under a bridge, and turned into a henhouse."
Featured Image Credit: Gullane Entertainment