Pickles: The Dog Who Won The World Cup (ITV1); Silent Britain (BBC4).: It wasn't so much his skill on the pitch as off the pitch that made Pickles into England's footballing hero.

As he himself admitted: "I like football, but Pele I ain't. I've always had four left feet."

Pickles was the dog who found the World Cup in 1966. Stolen from an exhibition where it was on display to the public, the trophy was discovered in a hedge by the canine Sherlock Holmes.

North-East writer Michael Chaplin padded out these few facts with a fictional story in that TV rarity - a film for all the family.

This one also had talking animals, although the gimmick was used sparingly (for financial rather than artistic reasons, I suspect). But we heard plenty of Pickles (voiced by Harry Enfield), as he narrated the story, along with a pair of talking ferrets named Flanagan and Allan and a German shepherd dog named Fritz.

Pickles had a devoted owner, football-mad girl Sammy, and a working-class London family whose head Lennie (Paul Kaye) loved his missus, his kids, West Ham United and England "in reverse order". His wife (Camilla Corduri) was pregnant with twins, which pleased him a lot - "we'll have our own Charlton boys", noted Lennie.

Then there was his mother-in-law (nice to see Liz Fraser again), whose soccer knowledge was limited. "The ball went in the thing and someone kicked it," was the level of her match commentary.

Pickles was good, wholesome entertainment with a plucky heroine and her dog finding the World Cup, comic Scottish villains (aware it was the only way their country would get their hands on the trophy), Keith Barron as a dodgy dealer and oodles of nostalgic references to Spangles, The Beano and The Troggs.

If Pickles had the air of one of those old Children's Film Foundation pictures, then Silent Britain - given a second showing on BBC4 - travelled back even further in cinema history to tell the largely-forgotten story of British movies before the advent of talkies.

A "lost generation" is how presenter Matthew Sweet described this period whose stars, masterpieces and technical innovative are little remembered.

Most people think of Hollywood when moving pictures are mentioned, but pioneers in this country played key roles in the early days of the industry. The trouble is they are largely forgotten these days. He told how the Brits helped invent the language of cinema through films with such unlikely titles as Grandma's Reading Glasses, made the first action movie in Attack On A China Mission, and invented the screen chase.

Animal stars too made appearances in early British silents. They were even cleverer than Pickles. Beetles were seen balancing little balls on their little legs. Getting a performance out of them wasn't pleasant - the insects were glued on their backs and made to perform circus tricks.

As we crept closer to the arrival of talkies, the names in British cinema became more familiar. Stars like former workhouse boy Charlie Chaplin and director Alfred Hitchcock, who went off to America to find great film fame.

Then there was leading man Ivor Novello, described as "a sex god in tight pants and black lipstick", which these days would make him the ideal candidate to become a Big Brother housemate.