TALES OF THE RIVER BANK



Canadian series that was shown in Britain from 1963 as part of the Watch With Mother strand, and repeated until 1971 when a new series of episodes were filmed. Riverbank told the tales of Hammy The Hamster, Roderick The Rat, GP (a guinea pig) and their assorted animal friends. What made this series different was that there was no animation or puppets involved and the production team of Dave Ellison and Ray Billings used real rodents filmed at high speed, which was then played back slower to make their movements seem more deliberate and natural. The creatures homes were furnished as human homes and they transported themselves around in cars, planes or boats. The stories were dubbed by children's favourite Johnny Morris (Animal Magic). In the 1970's the series was aired by ITV which was then repeated on Channel 4 in 1993 as Further Tales of the Riverbank.
52 episodes of 30 minute duration. Black and white and colour. Canada 1960-64.

TINGHA AND TUCKER



Former ATV continuity announcer Jean Morton received two koala-bear stuffed toys in 1962 and created a series around them that became a massive success. When The Tingha and Tucker Club was formed it attracted 750,000 members until finally, ATV, unable to cope with the volume of mail, were forced to close it. The original toys were replaced by puppets and Peter Harris, one of the puppeteers, went on to direct The Muppet Show as well as creating another children's favourite Tiswas. In 1970 the show was finally cancelled and soon after Tingha and Tucker were stolen from a store cupboard at ATV, never to be seen again. Very few tapes of the original series, which varied in length from ten to twenty minutes and preceded early afternoon children's programmes, five days a week, have survived.
? episodes of varied length. ATV 1962-70.

TOP CAT (aka: BOSS CAT)



Like The Flinstones before it, Top Cat was based on a successful US sitcom. Whereas Fred and Barney were the animated versions of Jackie Gleason and Art Carney, so TC and his gang were the feline equivalents of Sgt. Ernie Bilko and the gang of Fort Baxter. Like the Phil Silvers character, Top Cat was always wheeling, dealing and scheming, looking for a fast buck and hoping to hit 'the big one', much to the consternation of local neighbourhood cop Officer Dibble. Arnold Stang supplied the Phil Silvers imitated voice for 'the indisputable leader of the gang', whilst Benny the Ball was voiced by none other than Private Duane Doberman himself, actor Maurice Gosfield. Other characters included Choo Choo, Spook, The Brain and Fancy Fancy. The series was renamed for British audiences to Boss Cat because there was a cat food called Top Cat on sale in the UK.
30 episodes of approx 22 minutes duration. 1961-62.

TRUMPTON



"This is the clock, the Trumpton clock, telling the time, never too quickly, never too slowly..." These are the words that introduced Gordon Murray's stop-motion puppet series sequel to Camberwick Green. Set in the larger town of Trumpton the series mainly featured Captain Flack and his intrepid crew of fire-fighters, Hugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb. Shown as part of Watch With Mother, Trumpton survived for 13 episodes before moving on to tales of the next town in Trumptonshire, Chigley.
13 episodes of 15 minute duration. BBC. 1967

WACKY RACES



One of the most popular cartoon series to come from the prolific studio of Hanna-Barbera, Wacky Races was loosely based on the Jack Lemmon/Tony Cutis movie The Great Race. 11 daredevil racers lined up each week to claim the title of 'World's Wackiest Racer' and each week produced a different winner. This caused quite a stir in Great Britain when one school headmaster revealed that he had discovered his 12-14 year old pupils 'running a book' on the weekly result. Nevertheless, the drivers drew up to the starting line each week regardless, and they were: The Slag Brothers in the BoulderMobile, The Gruesome Twosome in the Creepy Coupe, Professor Pat Pending in the Convert-a-Car, Red Max in the Haybailer, Penelope Pitstop in the Compact Pussycat, Sarge and Meekly in the Army Surplus Special, The Ant Hill Mob in the Roaring Plenty, Luke and Blubber in the Arkansas Chugga-Bug, Peter Perfect in the Varoom Roadster, Rufus Ruffcut and Sawtooth in the Buzz Wagon, and lastly, the villains of the piece in their Mean Machine...Dick Dastardly and his sniggering canine sidekick, Muttley, whose sole aim it was to win every race by hook or by crook. Drat and Double drat! Two spin-off serials followed The Perils of Penelope Pitstop and Dastardly and Muttley In Their Flying Machines.
52 episodes of 25 minute duration. CBS 1968-70.