Hammy the Hamster Vol. 8

Hammy Hamster, is a Canadian children's television show starring Hammy Hamster and other animals. The series was created by David Ellison and Paul Sutherland, CBC film-editors, in 1959. After completing the pilot programme, CBC turned down the production and so Dave Ellison travelled to the BBC in London to show it.[1] The BBC at first commissioned thirteen episodes. The programme had human voices in sync to the actions of the live animals to give the impression that the creatures were performing activities. They lived on a place called "The Riverbank". The animals operated various artifacts including toy sailboats, cars, and even a diving bell. The voices were selected to reflect personalities of the animals. Each episode ended with the narrator alluding to an event involving the characters, but refusing to elaborate, saying "But that is another story." The original black and white Tales of the Riverbank series was first shown by the BBC on 3 July 1960 at 4:50pm.[2] It was originally narrated by Paul Sutherland, but the BBC did not want Canadian accents and so for the BBC showings, all the voices were provided by Johnny Morris. The series was eventually sold to 34 countries around the world. After the original thirteen episodes, 39 further episodes were made in black and white. The majority of the episodes were written by David Ellison, Charles Fullman, Paul Sutherland and Cliff Braggins. The episodes of Tales of the Riverbank that were purchased by the BBC were adapted by staff writer Peggy Miller. Much of the filming was done on location at Wootton Creek on the Isle of Wight. A later series with 26 episodes was filmed in colour in the 1970s, retitled Hammy Hamster[3] (full title: Hammy Hamster's Adventures On the Riverbank) launched in 1972. The BBC had introduced a policy of not using human voices for live animals and so this series was shown in the UK by ITV.