Animals Do The Funniest Things is one of Michael's most unusual and, I think, best programmes. Oddly for Michael he works alone. With no contestants or even studio audience for him to, shall we say, interact with, you might wonder if this is his kind of show. It most definitely is. Just as his genuine love of children shines in Kids Say The Funniest Things, so does his love of animals in this show.

This could so easily have just been You've Been Framed with animals, but is so much more with not only home videos, but also clips of animals that are special in their own way.

Click on the small photos to enlarge them.

This is Zeke "the Wonderdog".

This dog is incredible. Maybe I am biased, having shared my home with Sammy the wonderdog for the last 12 years. His American owner has trained him in a number of sports, golf, basketball and the like, but look at the picture below; Zeke caught the white ball, then each ring, one at a time, and finished with the football between his arms.


Could you do that?
To introduce each batch of clips Michael bravely ignores the show business rule about working with animals. Unruly gameshow contestants can't be any match for this lot:
Is that Candy?
In Boston there is a charity which trains monkies to live with, and help, disabled people. This is Gizmo, a capuchin monkey. Gizmo lives with her quadraplegic owner and can perform an astonishing variety of everyday tasks, from switching on the lights to working a VCR. Gizmo is rewarded with fruit juice but there is an obvious mutual affection between her and her owner, George.
The show features many other inspiring and funny animals. Among them are Maggie May, a deaf dog who has learnt to read a form of sign language, Alec, who is smarter than your average parrot and a reserve in Africa where visitors share meal time with an endangered species of giraffe.

Of course, no show of this type would be complete without home video clips. Among these is the best dressed dog in town, a cat that goes skiing, three dogs on water-skis and a surfing pig(?!)