‘Tales of the Riverbank’ was a television series featuring a guinea pig, a hamster, a rat and other real live animals. Based on a rejected Canadian pilot (no sense of humour, the Americans) it was shot in a bucolic Wind-in-in-the-Willows setting in Britain. GP, the guinea pig, lived in a disused water mill, flew aeroplanes, and was an inventor. The adventures involved boats, cars and, in one episode, a cannon which blew something up. The pilot had been voiced by a Canadian, but thankfully the BBC recruited legendary actor Johnny Morris to provide proper English voices. Later, the Canadians reversed their rejection of the concept and bought the BBC series, shamefully re-voicing it with American accents. Possibly GP took on a New York taxi-driver’s accent, or that of a Boston academic. Perish the thought. The makers of the show discuss its production in this Radio Solent broadcast. I was a bit old when the series hit Australian screens; it was televised around dinner time, whe...