Every dog has its day, and this year Saturday 26 August is 'National Dog Day'. To celebrate, we have rounded up some of our favourite BBC pooches and canine related shows:
Get down Shep!
Blue Peter has a long tradition of featuring the presenter's pets on the show, including ten canines, from Petra the first dog, to John Noakes' beloved Shep, to Simon Groom's Goldie and Matt Baker's Meg, pictured here with friends, who lives on as the 'bark' in The Archers.
Lost dog
Staying with The Archers, German Shepherd cross Scruff arrived in Ambridge in 2003 and proceeded to cause havoc, change owners, get lost...and found, and provoked an emotional response from listeners on his sad passing thirteen years later in July 2016.
The very biggest spotty dog you ever did see
Spotty Dog from the Watch With Mother show The Woodentops was a children's favourite in the 1950s. This picture shows a replica of the puppet (right) many years after Spotty Dog's original airing, in a production shot for a promotional video for children's TV on the BBC called Future Generations: Small People. The puppet featured in the promo, and that of Sausage the Dog from Picturebook, also seen in this picture, have new homes in The National Science and Media Museum.
Four legged friends
Another children's TV favourite, this time from 1974, was Roobarb and Custard. Bob Godfrey's distinctive animation and Richard Briers narration brought Grange Calveley's tales of Roobarb the dog and Custard the cat to life. Readers of a certain age may want to remind themselves of the show's classic theme tune by Johnny Hawksworth.
Sit...Walkies
Barbara Woodhouse filming a 'new series for dog owners': Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way. The 1980 BBC series made the inimitable dog trainer into a household name at the age of 70.
Who's a good boy?
Galifreyan's best friend. K9 the robot dog in Doctor Who was voiced by John Leeson and accompanied the fourth doctor, Tom Baker on his adventures. The metal hound nearly got his own series, K9 and Company, but sadly it didn't make it past the first episode.
'Come bye'
One Man and his Dog first aired on February 17, 1976. This picture, from 1980, shows original presenter Phil Drabble introducing the programme on location in the Lake District, with shepherd Eurwyn Daniel and his collie Meg. The show was later encompassed into BBC One's Countryfile and celebrated it's 40th anniversary last year.
Clever boy
Hacker T Dog is the furry CBBC presenter from Wigan. His 'handler' is puppeteer Andy Heath. A recent appearance on Celebrity Mastermind left Hacker two points shy of being top dog, but the nation took him to their hearts.
Clever girl
This is Betsy, reputedly the world's most intelligent dog (at time of broadcast in 2010) who featured in Horizon: The Secret Life Of The Dog. The programme explored the extraordinary relationship between humans and dogs, including research into whether dogs could sense emotion, or help fight disease.
It's not a competition...
...it's THE ULTIMATE CONTEST! Me And My Dog pitted 8 pairs of dogs and owners against each other to find the champions. Pictured here is host Chris Packham (centre) and the competitors Daisy & Zuri, Andrew & Betty, Ellie & Benny, Colin & Mitch, Jennie & Bodger, Monty & Jake, Antonia & Flapjack, Josh & Douglas. They were all winners.
Puppy Love
Behind the scenes shot of BBC Four comedy Puppy Love, set around a Wirral-based dog training class. Pictured here are writers Joanna Scanlon (r) and Vicky Pepperdine (l), who also played Nana V and Naomi respectively, plus Tobias Menzies who played Alexander and his dog 'Toffee'.
More puppy love
If you hurry you can still catch episode 1 of 10 Puppies And Us on BBC iPlayer. The series features this little guy, Hunter.
Lead roles
Eastenders has seen nearly 20 canine stars grace Albert Square, we picked out (r-l) the first, 'Roly' the Watts' poodle, the smallest, Ethel's pug 'Willy' and the longest serving, Robbie Jackson's Belgian tervuren 'Wellard'.
Bring your dog to work day
In 2013, BBC presenter Andrew Neil brought his golden retriever Miss Molly onto the set of This Week where she mingled with guests and, well, at least thought about asking the burning questions of the day. She even made the papers herself.
Fleabag
Finally, we tip our hat to Woodstock (Woody) Tom Hardy's dog who appeared with him as he read CBeebies Bedtime Stories. The current story 'Fleabag' about a boy who wants a dog was recorded before Woody's sad passing in June. The show will be broadcast at 6.50pm on National Dog Day (August 26), a fitting tribute to the late Woody.
