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This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the magazine story.

“Shake! Shake! Make me quake!"
"Make me quake until I shake!”
― Thomas and Dowager Hatt crossing the Shake Shake Bridge

Jitters and Japes is the eighteenth episode of the fourteenth series.

Plot

Dowager Hatt is visiting Sodor. Thomas puffs into Knapford Station and the Fat Controller tells him to collect his mother from Maithwaite Station and take her on a tour of Misty Island. Thomas guarantees that Dowager Hatt will have fun, which prompts the Fat Controller to warn Thomas that his mother is an elderly woman. Thomas then asks Toby - one of the oldest engines - what she would want to do, to which Toby advises that she would want to go slow and then rest to smile at the beautiful views.

So Thomas sets off to Maithwaite to collect Dowager Hatt. Thomas tells her that he has a plan for their day and Dowager Hatt tells Thomas that she has a few plans herself, but Thomas does not listen and sets off through the Misty Island Tunnel. Unfortunately, the mist is down over Misty Island, which rather upsets Dowager Hatt. Thomas then remembers Toby's idea of fun and stops to let Dowager Hatt admire the view, but she is not happy. She does not consider the view very fun at all. Thomas assures her that the next stop will be fun and they soon stop at the Misty Island Seashore.

They soon get to the Seashore where Dowager Hatt waits and waits, but she does not smile. Finally, the mist lifts and Thomas sets off again to have more "fun." Thomas, remembering Toby's advice, puffs slowly and steadily up and down hills. But Dowager Hatt is getting more and more annoyed until, finally, she demands Thomas to stop. He does and Dowager Hatt orders Thomas to take her home. Thomas tells her that he was only trying to be fun for her, but Dowager Hatt tells Thomas that she wanted thrills and spills, jokes and japes, jitters and flitters. Thomas does not know what those are, so he agrees to the Dowager's orders and decides to go home the quickest way possible.

Thomas chuffs through the Hollow Tree Tunnel, and to his surprise, Dowager Hatt is clapping and laughing. This gives Thomas an idea; he races faster and faster towards the Shake Shake Bridge, which Dowager Hatt loves. Next, it is Ol' Wheezy's turn to impress. He throws logs all over the place - much to the Dowager's content. All too soon, it is teatime and Dowager Hatt has to go back to Sodor. Dowager Hatt tells her son all about the fun she has had and the Fat Controller praises Thomas, who now realises that different people have different ideas of fun - regardless of their age.

Characters

Locations

Cast

UK

US and CAN

Trivia

  • Going by production order, this is the nineteenth episode of the fourteenth series.
  • This episode marks the first of a few things:
    • The first episode to feature the road entrance of Knapford.
    • The first time Dowager Hatt is referred to by name in the US dub.
    • Jem Cole's first appearance in an episode since the eleventh series episode, Thomas and the Runaway Car, his first appearance since The Great Discovery and his first appearance in CGI.
    • The first appearance of a taxi in CGI.
  • This is the only episode where Misty Island has appeared without the Logging Locos.
  • Part of Dowager Hatt's portrait from the episode Percy's Parcel is framed on the Fat Controller's mantle-piece along with a painting of himself from the live-action Engine Driver Segments and one of his granddaughter, Bridget.
  • Photographs of James from James Goes Too Far, Toby's Afternoon Off and one of Henry can be seen on the wall of the stationmaster's office at Knapford. A portrait of Pansy Percival can also be seen at the beginning of the episode along with one of Emily from Emily's New Route at Maithwaite. In the pictures of James, Henry and Emily, their faces have been removed.
  • The Norwegian title is directly translated to a Norwegian term old people use to describe young people.
  • This is the last appearance of Topham Hall until Thomas and the Royal Engine.
  • When Thomas heads off to pick up Dowager Hatt at Maithwaite, an instrumental of Go, Go Thomas is heard.
  • For some reason, Dowager Hatt's lines "This isn't fun Thomas, stop now," and "I wanted thrills and spills, jokes and japes, jitters and flitters, that would be fun," were redubbed in the US dub.

Goofs

  • The narrator says that Dowager Hatt climbed aboard Annie and Clarabel, but she can only be in one or the other.
  • In some shots, the backs of both Annie and Clarabel are completely black.

Merchandise

In Other Languages

View content
Language Title
Brazilian Portuguese Tremores e Gracejos
Chinese Mandarin 活力四射
Czech Jásání a smích
Danish Fut og fart
Finnish Jalalla Koreasti
French Thomas Joue Les Guides
German Spaß auf dem Nebelinsel
Greek Έντονες Συγκινήσεις
Hungarian Vérpezsdítő kirándulás
Indonesian Tawa dan Canda
Japanese ワクワクするぼうけん
Korean 안개 섬 여행 (dub)
아슬아슬 두근두근 (subtitles)
Latin American Spanish Emociones Fuertes
Norwegian Hurramegrundt
Hurra-meg-rundt
Polish Figle i Bigle
Portuguese Um dia de emoções
Romanian Năzdrăvănii pe Linie
Russian Странная прогулка
Slovenian Vznemirjenje in šale
Swedish Skoj och spratt

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