Tales of the Riverbank was an ingenious series of stories with footage of actual animals and dubbed actors' voices to speak their dialogue. The main characters were rodents, Roderick the Rat and Hammy the Hamster. In supporting parts were Mrs. Duck, Mrs. Hen, Mr. Weasel, Mr. Guinea-Pig, and Mr. Squirrel.

Paul Sutherland and David Ellison created the series and sold the 13 films to BBC television in England. The films were shot in a Church Street studio in Toronto, on budgets as low as $2,500 each. Although they debuted in England in 1960, the series was not seen in Canada until 1962.

About the CBC not purchasing the series, Ellison said, "It seems strange that so much interest should be shown in other parts of the world, when we originally made the series in answer to the Board of Broadcast Governors' cry for more Canadian content. Everything about the films is Canadian except for one cameraman, who is Hungarian, and the hamster— who was born in Canada but whose family came over from Persia a few centuries ago."