Ivor the Engine is clearly not a real person but a fictional character, included here as an item of Welsh interest rather than as a biography, in the same spirit as Doctor Who being of Welsh interest as a long-running Cardiff production. Ivor is a small green steam locomotive said to work for "the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited" in the "top left-hand corner of Wales."
The series was created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin through their company Smallfilms, first produced in black and white for Associated-Rediffusion in 1958, with a colour revival for the BBC running from 1975 to 1977 across 40 episodes. Neither creator was Welsh, and the series was made from a converted cowshed in Blean, near Canterbury, Kent. Postgate said the idea was partly inspired by a wartime acquaintance, a Welsh former railway fireman named Denzyl Ellis, who described how steam locomotives seemed to come alive when heated, and the storytelling has often been compared to the style of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
Postgate voiced Ivor himself, alongside the character Jones the Steam, and narrated the series throughout. Actress Olwen Griffiths (1924-1995) voiced all of the female characters, including Idris the Welsh dragon, and Anthony Jackson voiced Dai Station, Evans the Song, Mr Dinwiddy and Major Llewellyn.
In December 2020, Smallfilms - by then run by Postgate's son, Daniel - released a charity audiobook, "Ivor the Engine and Friends," featuring seven new stories read by Welsh performers Cerys Matthews, Rhys Ifans and Rob Brydon alongside Eddie Izzard, recorded remotely on phones during a period of lockdown, with proceeds going to the Welsh children's cancer charity Latch. Daniel Postgate has since announced plans for a live-action film adaptation through his company Quintet Pictures.