Mop and Smiff

Mop and Smiff is a children's pre-school television programme, the first episode "The Hang Glider" was broadcast on 4 April 1985 on BBC1, the final episode "The Snow" aired on 1 January 1986. Repeats of the programme were shown on BBC2 until 1988. The show creator Mike Amatt also stars as himself with his dog Mop and cat Smiff.

Mop is a shaggy-haired sheepdog.

Smiff is a bright-eyed tabby cat.

Mike, their owner, is an artist and storyteller.

The show used a portmanteau format with a small cartoon show embedded inside a narrative. The show starts with detailing a day of Mike, Mop or Smiff in real camera recording format. When they return home later, Mike would use the day's events for artistic inspiration to draw a cartoon. The show cuts into Mike's imagined animated sub-story with Mop and Smiff as talking friends who care for each other and go on their own adventure.

A spin-off series, Mike, Mop and the Moke, was produced in 1985, and featured Amatt and Mop driving to various seaside towns in an Austin Champ.^[1]