- “The live action appealed to me as it felt like the best train set ever and I had and loved my model railway as a child.”
- ― Andrew Brenner on the original live action model series, 2012 SiF interview
Andrew Lewis Brenner (born 7 February 1961) is an American-born English script writer, producer, songwriter and singer who was the head writer for Thomas & Friends from November 2012 to August 2018.
Career
He previously worked on the magazine stories, starting at the beginning of their publication in 1987. He was given seasons one and two on video and was asked to adapt the episodes into magazine stories. When he ran out of episodes to adapt, he wrote original stories, several of which were adapted into third season and fifth season episodes without his knowledge or consent. He stopped working on the magazines soon after. He was never credited for his work in either the magazines or the television series. Among the stories that were adapted were Henry's Forest, which was inspired by a storm that caused damage and blew trees over around London.
He started writing for the seventeenth season in November 2010 for which he wrote ten episodes, when Sharon Miller stepped down. He also wrote ten episodes for the eighteenth season, six episodes for the nineteenth season, and ten episodes for the twentieth season, three of them were story adaptations from The Railway Series book Small Railway Engines. He also wrote two episodes for the twenty-second season. He additionally worked as a script editor for Blue Mountain Mystery before taking over as head writer.
He was also the head writer of "Tractor Tom", "Angelina Ballerina", "Fireman Sam", and "The Cramp Twins". It also stated on his online CV that he is the headwriter for Jack and the Pack. This was later removed for unknown reasons. He is currently head writer on "Pablo".
He left Thomas & Friends in August 2018 to pursue other projects. The twenty-third season will be his last contribution to the series.
Original Stories
Season 3
- Thomas Gets Bumped - adapted from Hello, Thomas! and A Bump on the Line
- Thomas, Percy and the Dragon - adapted from Percy's Night Out and Percy and the Dragon
- Diesel Does it Again - adapted from Trouble in the Harbour Yard and Bumps
- Henry's Forest - adapted from the magazine story of the same name and Clearing Up
- No Joke for James - adapted from The Express and A Passenger for James
- Thomas, Percy and the Post Train - adapted from The Post Train and After the Last Train
- Trust Thomas - adapted from Bertie's Bumpy Roads
- Edward, Trevor and the Really Useful Party - adapted from The Vicar's Fete and Edward and the Vicar
- One Good Turn - adapted from Head On and Pulling Together
- Heroes - adapted from In a Muddle and the magazine story of the same name.
- Percy, James and the Fruitful Day - adapted from Percy Gets Jammed
Season 5
- Something in the Air - adapted from A Fishy Smell
- Thomas, Percy and Old Slow Coach - adapted from Fire
- Thomas and the Rumours - adapted from An Important Visitor and Rumours and Speculation
Episodes Written
Season 17
- Gordon Runs Dry
- Bill or Ben? (adapted from Diesel's Race)
- Too Many Fire Engines
- Santa's Little Engine
- The Missing Christmas Decorations
- The Frozen Turntable
- Away From the Sea
- The Smelly Kipper
- Gone Fishing
- Thomas' Shortcut
Season 18
- Old Reliable Edward
- Disappearing Diesels
- Duck in the Water
- Thomas the Quarry Engine
- Thomas and the Emergency Cable
- Missing Gator
- Spencer's VIP
- Last Train for Christmas
- Marion and the Dinosaurs
- Millie and the Volcano
Season 19
- Best Engine Ever
- The Little Engine Who Raced Ahead
- Philip to the Rescue
- The Other Side of the Mountain
- No Help At All
- Goodbye Fat Controller
Season 20
- Toby's New Friend
- Saving Time
- Pouty James
- Three Steam Engines Gruff
- Engine of the Future
- Hugo and the Airship
- Cautious Connor
- Tit for Tat
- Mike's Whistle
- Useful Railway
Season 22
Specials
- King of the Railway
- Tale of the Brave
- The Adventure Begins
- Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure
- The Great Race
- Journey Beyond Sodor
- Big World! Big Adventures!
Mr. Perkins
- Mr. Perkins' Storytime: The Flying Kipper
- Mr. Perkins' Postcard: Ulfstead Castle
- Mr. Perkins' Storytime: Trucks!
- Mr. Perkins' Postcard: Blue Mountain Quarry
- Mr. Perkin's Storytime: Thomas and Gordon
- Mr. Perkin's Postcard: Knapford Station
- Mr. Perkins' Storytime: Pop Goes The Diesel
- Mr. Perkins' Postcard: The Dieselworks
- Mr. Perkins Storytime: Gordon Goes Foreign
- Mr. Perkins Storytime: Henry and the Elephant
- Mr. Perkins Storytime: Thomas Comes to Breakfast
- Mr. Perkins Storytime: The Story of How Toby and Henrietta Came to Sodor
- Mr. Perkins Storytime: Percy the Ghost Train
- Mr. Perkins Storytime: Thomas and Bertie
- Mr. Perkins Storytime: Percy and Harold
- Mr. Perkins Storytime: Thomas, Terence and the Snow
- Mr. Perkins Storytime: Sir Topham Hatt's Engines
- Mr. Perkins Storytime: Trouble in the Shed
Songs
Songs Written
- Never Overlook a Little Engine
- We Make A Team Together
- Will You Won't You
- Streamlining
- I'm/He's Full of Surprises
- You Can Only Be You
- The Shooting Star Is Coming Through
- Be Who You Are, and Go Far
- Somebody Has to be the Favourite
- Who's Thomas?
- The Hottest Place in Town
- I Want to Go Home
- We Can't Do Anything
- The Most Important Thing is Being Friends
- Where in the World is Thomas?
- Free and Easy
- Sometimes You Make a Friend
- We're Friends (co-written with Kevin Roberge and Carl Taylor)
Songs Performed
- He's Full of Surprises (with Ian McCue, David Stoten and Oliver Davis)
Trivia
- Since becoming head writer, the twenty-first season is the only season to not feature a single episode written by him.
- He, Teresa Gallagher, David Holt, Michael Carrington and Oliver Davis all worked on "The Likeaballs".
- He, Oliver Davis, Denise Green, Marion Edwards and Salty's Lighthouse actor Ian James Corlett all worked on "The Cramp Twins".
- He, Antti L. J. Pääkkönen, Gerardo Alonso, Oana Pernes, Stefan Ashton Frank, Gerardo Mendoza, Bruno Coronel, Benjamín Rivera, Kerry Shale, Teresa Gallagher, Joanna Pach-Żbikowska, Mia Kadosh, Víctor Covarrubias, Guillermo Coria, Emma Fernando, Sergio Morel, Rupert Degas, Christopher Ragland, Mayra Arellano, Carlos Hernández, Colin McFarlane, Luca Magnani, Ian McCue, Togo Igawa, Susa Saukko, Petri Hanttu, Petrus Kähkönen, Juha Varis and Michael Carrington have all worked on "The Amazing World of Gumball".
- He, Albert Cohen, Marion Edwards, Ian McCue, Christopher Keenan, Erica Welch, Andrew Defty, Karen Davies, Thomas Holborow, Steven Kynman, Christopher Skala, Michelle Rodda, Jan Page, Lee Pressman, Helen Farrall, John Hasler, Ross Hastings, Laura Beaumont, Paul Larson, Miranda Larson, Karen Davidsen, Karen Barnes, Lenora Hume, Sam Barlow, Dave Ingham, Simon Nicholson, Jocelyn Stevenson, Sharon Quick, Pete Atkin, Fiona Hardwick, Lorna Withrington, Finn Poncin, Lizzie Ennever, Prokhor Chekhovskoy, Oliver Böttcher, Oliver Davis, Łukasz Talik, Samuel Harjanne, Nir Ron, Stan Limburg, Mia Kadosh, Petri Hanttu, Simona Pahl, Gadi Levy, Robert Hartshorne, Arlyn Bantog, Tim Bain, Benjamin Morik, Achim Schülke, Ole Jacobsen, Alexandra Morgan and Juha Varis have all worked on "Fireman Sam".
- He and Michael White both work on "Pablo".
- He has worked on comic strips of various shows; some of which other production crew have worked on:
- Willie Rushton (The Trap Door)
- Louise Raeder, Susan Roman, Linda Ballantyne, Robert Tinkler, Josie Yee, Sarah Williams, Jennifer Hill and Amal-Marie Samuel (Care Bears)
- Martín Soto, Jorge Roig, Shinobu Adachi, Rocío Garcel, Daisuke Gōri and Louise Raeder (Ghostbusters)
- Simona Pahl and David Holt (Rupert Bear)
- Håkan Mohede, Marta Markowicz, Daniel Lacy, Eti Castro, Dariusz Błażejewski, Anna Gajewska, Jamie Thomason, Naoki Tatsuta, Luis Alfonso Padilla, Beata Jankowska-Tzimas, Francisco Colmenero, Toshiharu Sakurai, Scott Maurstad, Don Spencer, Jim Cummings, Michael Carrington, Hadar Shachaf Ma'ayan, Christopher Keenan, John Schwab and Cezary Kwieciński (Scooby Doo)
- Brian Trueman, Jan Needle and Luis Alfonso Mendoza (Count Duckula)
- David Eves, David Mitton, Robert Gauld-Galliers, Robert D. Cardona, Mike O'Donnell, Junior Campbell, Terry Permane, Jeremy King, Nigel Permane, Rokurō Naya, Masashi Ebara, Hideyuki Umezu and Elise Langenoja (TUGS)
- According to an interview on SiF, his favourite characters are James, Toby, Bill and Ben.
