It is all change for Thomas the Tank Engine.

The much-loved television series, based on the books by Rev Wilbert Awdry, is being overhauled for a new generation.

Tidmouth Sheds will become gender-balanced, with two male engines turfed out to make way for females - one of them from Africa.

The Liverpudlian narrator - a tradition begun by Ringo Starr, then continued by actors Michael Angelis and Mark Monaghan - will disappear, as will the theme tune with its roll-call of engine names.

But in the most unlikely change of all, Thomas will leave his home on the Island of Sodor for adventures abroad, in episodes that support the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals.

Mattel, the US toy giant that owns the rights to Thomas the Tank Engine, has collaborated with the UN on storylines featuring five of the goals: quality education, gender equality, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and life on land.