Lady Hatt (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

Background Information
Lady Hatt was introduced the first series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.

She married Sir Topham Hatt and is the grandmother of Stephen and Bridget Hatt. She has a brother-in-law, Sir Lowham Hatt and her mother-in-law is Dowager Hatt.

Prior to 2009, Michael Angelis and Alec Baldwin gave Lady Hatt a high pitch British accent. Jules de Jongh voiced her in the US dub from the start of the show's CGI switch in Hero of the Rails, with Teresa Gallagher likewise voicing her in the UK. Jongh voiced Lady Hatt until the end of the fifteenth series, leading Gallagher to take over the role in the US as of the seventeenth series. Jongh portrayed Lady Hatt with a deep American accent, while Gallagher gives the character a higher pitched British accent.

Gauge 1 figure
Lady Hatt's Gauge 1 figure was custom built from wood for the first series. It was filled in with craft paint. The model was constructed for distance shots only.

Many depictions of the props have been assembled for various scenarios to match the storylines.

One of Lady Hatt's figure's used to be on display at Drayton Manor, her head from Series 5, wearing Mrs Kyndley's body, is currently owned by Twitter user Hectorfan2008

Close-up figure
A close-up figure of Lady Hatt was constructed for scenes where she had to interact with the close-up models for engines and set dressings. Just like the Gauge 1 figure, the model had many variations to match the needs of the plots. Rather than wood, the close-up model was made from lead, which was replaced with resin copies for the second series to the special The Great Discovery.

Gauge 3 figure
A Gauge 3 figure of Lady Hatt was constructed for scenes where she had to interact with the large scale models of the narrow gauge engines, which had been used since the fifth series for ease of filming and reliability. Just like the Gauge 1 figure, the model had many variations to match the needs of the plots, and like many post-series 2 figures, it was made of resin.

CGI model
The twelfth series marked the beginning of the show's transition into CGI as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Lady Hatt was recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios in 2008, a year before the show switched over to full CGI. Her model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

Photographs of Lady Hatt's close-up figure were used for referencing. According to Greg Tiernan, every detail of the original television series models for each character is carefully reproduced in the CGI model. The models are subjected to many rounds of review before they are submitted to HiT Entertainment for final input and approval.

Voice Actors

 * Teresa Gallagher
 * Jules de Jongh
 * Fu Suzuki
 * Ikumi Sugiyama
 * Sakura Yoshioka
 * Ewa Serwa
 * Benedikte Kruse
 * Marianne Westby
 * Gabriela Guzmán
 * Rocío Garcel
 * Sabine Hahn
 * Margrit Strassburger
 * Blanche Ravalec
 * María Sánchez
 * Alma Naranjo
 * Susa Saukko
 * Olga Kuznetsova
 * Elain Llwyd
 * Vina Papadopoulou