Tales of Aesop

When Hubert Hare shows off his brand-new super-speed lawn mower, his neighbour Cedric the tortoise declares that he could beat a hare in a race any day. Hubert can't stop giggling, so Cedric challenges him to race from the village green to the old apple tree and back, with Boris the Lion starting them off with his blunderbuss.

When Boris the Lion dozes off after a large Sunday supper, Monty Mouse slips in to help himself to the leftovers and is caught red-handed. Boris is ready to turn him into mouse mousse, but laughs off Monty's promise to repay him one day and lets him go, until a walk in the forest lands Boris in a hunter's trap.

It's carnival week in the village, and "Dr" Archibald Frog is back with his pet bumblefly, Willy, and his bottles of miracle medicine. When Willy stings Geraldine Donkey on the nose, the frog warns that a swarm of bumbleflies is on its way and sells his medicine to nearly everyone in the village.

Ferdie Fox can't decide which of the Furry Fox sisters to invite for Sunday tea, so he invites all three and sets off through the woods to practise a poem for them. Too busy rehearsing to watch where he is going, he tumbles into the old well, where Joshua Goat, out for a hot and thirsty hike, hears him.

Speech day in the village promises to be dull, so Hogwyn Hare slips off to Geraldine Donkey's cake display, and before long her cherry surprise has disappeared. To cover his tracks he cries "Wolf!", and while Boris the Lion leads a search party, Hogwyn is left to guard the two cakes that remain.

Bored with being an ordinary walkabout tortoise, Cedric finds an old book on how to fly and spends the whole day sawing and hammering a pair of wings in his shed, too busy even for Boris the Lion's birthday dinner. Becky Bird laughs that tortoises can't fly, but Cedric heads for his launch pad all the same.

Norman the Wolf and his cousin Betty Bite set off on a camping holiday in the forest, and Norman insists on taking the shortcut through Bully Bear's patch. Betty, who has never liked walking, can't shake the feeling that they are not alone, and neither of them has noticed the two big ears listening to every word.

When Geraldine Donkey puts up a poster warning of a burglar in the neighbourhood, Mrs Bite rushes home and buries her treasured gold and silver ornaments in a deep hole in the garden. She stops going out so she can guard them day and night, and before long her strange behaviour is the talk of the village.

It's Ferdie Fox's birthday, and his present from Auntie Flo is a lovely big piece of cheese, until it vanishes from his patio while he is inviting Boris the Lion to breakfast. Boris is sure Monty Mouse has pinched it, but Monty points them to Becky Bird, perched at the top of a tree with the cheese in her beak.

At the village fete, Mrs Bite opens her fortune-telling tent expecting plenty of customers and a nice big pile of coins. But the noise from Hubert and Hogwyn Hare's disco is upsetting the mystical vibrations of her crystal ball, so she hatches a plan involving the balloon-blowing machine in the next tent.

Monty Mouse has his cottage looking spick and span for a visit from his cousin Freddy from the city, even if it means missing the harvest barn dance. But Freddy turns up his nose at Monty's fresh country supper and whisks him off to the city to show him what a proper meal is.

Geraldine Donkey's competition to guess the weight of a long string of her gold-medal sausages ends with two winners, Mrs Bite and Boris the Lion, and neither will share. While they argue, Mrs Bite makes off with the sausages, and Ferdie Fox, who has been watching everything and feeling peckish, has a very good idea.

Tired of their squabbling, the Hare twins' father gives Hubert and Hogwyn a present each: a spade. Neither hare is keen on hard work until he tells them they will be digging for treasure in the family's overgrown vineyard, and Becky Bird soon turns up to have some fun at their expense.