It is well known that Ringo Starr narrated the stories in the early Thomas the Tank Engine series.

For those of you too young to know who that is, he was 25% of the Fab Four. Sorry. Maybe I need to clarify that still further. He was one of The Beatles. Regardless of your musical tastes it is a fact that they were and still are the biggest, most successful act in the history of popular music. Ringo only read the stories for the first two series but his name is synonymous with the early episodes when they used model trains. Far more enjoyable to watch than the newer animated series.

Cameo?

So much for an ex-Beatle narrating the stories. But did The Beatles make a very brief cameo appearance in one of the early episodes?

Last weekend something caught my eye while the kids were watching one of their favourite Thomas DVDs. It included the episode “Jack Jumps In” and I am sure there is a quick glimpse of the Fab Four in one of the scenes.

When Jack arrives on site the storyline even mentions that “Thomas delivered Jack to the quarry” just when the “Beatles” appear on screen. See for yourself in the picture below. Now it doesn’t take a genius to work out the link here. Before they became the Beatles the fab four were known as “The Quarrymen”. Coincidence? A tenuous link? Or maybe I just need glasses.

One of the better episodes….

The episode is quite a good one. The first time I watched it with Dani it made me laugh. In one scene Jack the little front-loader squares up to Max the huge dump truck and the there is a tense stand-off. The soundtrack plays the classic whistling sound from The Good The Bad and The Ugly. A nod to a spaghetti western style confrontation and a cameo appearance from The Beatles in the same episode? Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Judge for yourself when you watch the whole episode click here.