Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration

Clearwater Features, Ltd. was a British film production company (based first in Battersea and then at Shepperton Studios) that produced the first two series of the children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends from 1984 to 1986, for The Britt Allcroft Company. Clearwater is also known for creating the hit children's TV show TUGS. The company was founded in the early 1980s by Gerry Anderson alumni Ken Turner and David Mitton, and produced television commercials as well as miniature effects for films and TV shows. Turner left the company in 1979, to be replaced by American-born director and producer Robert D. Cardona.

The production logo of Clearwater Features was a pink Cadillac parked at a film studio with palm trees, based on Clearwater, Florida, and it appeared on every ending of every episode of Thomas The Tank Engine, and also appeared on a flag of a barge in the TUGS Episode 4th of July.

The company closed down on New Year's Eve 1990 because of TUGS' conclusion. When the studio closed, David Mitton became part of The Britt Allcroft Company, and Robert D. Cardona went to live in Canada. Britt Allcroft, returning home from the US, purchased the models and sets which were used for TUGS, and the show Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends remained in production by The Britt Allcroft Company and later Gullane Entertainment from 1984 until 2003, but was later produced in 2003 by HIT Entertainment.

Key people

 * Ken Turner – co-founder
 * David Mitton – co-founder
 * Robert D. Cardona – co-CEO (1979–1990)
 * Terry Permane – lighting, cameraman, and Director of Photography
 * Bob Gauld-Galliers – art director
 * Junior Campbell – composer
 * Mike O'Donnell – composer
 * John Attwell – cameraman
 * Phil Sanderson – editor

Produced

 * Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends / 1984 – 1986 / two series
 * TUGS / 1988 – 1990 / one series
 * Various British TV Adverts
 * Star Tours (Theme Park Ride)
 * BBC1 (Idents with Train)
 * The Disney Channel (for Crystal Diamond)
 * Universal Pictures (Spinning Globe)
 * Paramount Pictures (Mountain)