Greg Hemphill and Julie Wilson Nimmo work with children and animals as loved tales reach TV

It is the golden rule of acting: never work with animals or children.

But if thespian couple Greg Hemphill and Julie Wilson Nimmo ever read the rule book they ignored it and could not be happier after playing opposite the cutest little girl and her talking guinea pig. He plays very modern stay-at-home dad Mr Sawdust alongside the talking furry star, Olga da Polga, in the first ever television adaption of Michael Bond’s hugely successful children’s books.

And, for the first time in his career, the Still Game star gets to act as a couple alongside wife Julie, of Balamory fame. The Bafta-winning duo play mum and dad to Karen Sawdust, who is based on the Paddington creator’s own daughter Karen Jankel and played by Glasgow schoolgirl Isla Mercer, eight, in her debut role, while actress Lesley Harcourt voices Olga.

Hemphill said: “After all the years we’ve been together, this is the first time Jules and I have actually had the opportunity to act together as a couple, and it’s been an absolute delight. Mr Sawdust is a very hands-on dad who looks after Karen as Mrs Sawdust is out working.

“With Jules and I both acting, I’ve spent a lot of time making the tea and looking after our boys when she was out working, so it wasn’t a great leap to portray Mr Sawdust.

“Little Isla who play Karen was wonderful, and as we all love animals, working with guinea pigs, cats and tortoises was a dream job.”

After years playing pensioner Victor in Still Game, Greg said it was a “joy” to be spared hours in make-up. He said: “It was a joy just to be myself. In fact, it was sweet that at the age of 52, I actually got a few compliments from people telling me how young I looked. Olga is a very different show from Still Game where we spent all day joking and playing schoolboy tricks on each other. But working with children and animals is very different, very sweet and the animals were incredibly expressive.”

Wilson Nimmo, who is best known as Miss Hoolie in children’s series Balamory, said: “Everyone knows and loves Paddington, so it was a wonderful compliment to be asked to bring the Olga da Polga books to life.”

Bond’s daughter Karen Jankel, 64, said: “Dad had actually started to map out what he intended to do with Olga as far back as 1971, but he realised filming animals was a lot harder than he imagined. When I saw what the production company planned, I just knew dad would have approved.”

Bond, who died five years ago, is of course best known for his Paddington Bear, with 35 million book sales around the world.

But he also wrote nine Olga books after basing her on Jankel’s own guinea pig. Bond penned all kinds of adventures for Olga, who spins big stories to her animal chums which include Noel the cat, Graham the tortoise and Fangio the hedgehog.

The 13-part series has been 20 years in the making after Jackie Savery, founder of film production company Marakids and Maramedia, fell in love with the books as a child.

© Thomas Skinner

Savery said: “It has truly been a labour of love, from the length of time it has taken to have the burning desire to find a way of portraying Michael’s characters, to finding the right time and place to make the dream a reality.

“I loved the Olga books when I was a child, and so did my own two children. In fact we loved them so much, we actually have lots of guinea pigs at home as pets.

“I finally managed to meet Michael’s daughter Karen to show her my ideas. She immediately ran off to get her father’s work and showed me that the ideas he had to bring Olga to the screen, were almost identical to the scripts I’d written.

“Once we saw that this was what Michael had envisaged, of course it was a dream come true to be able to go ahead and start filming.”

CBeebies will begin broadcasting the series next week, and Savery cannot wait to share her vision. Her Glasgow-based production company have produced major wildlife programmes including Hebrides – Islands On The Edge and Highlands – Scotland’s Wild Heart, so the team were well used to the length of time and problems encountered when working with animals.

Savery said: “There’s very good reasons why they say never work with children or animals, but we’ve always loved facing the challenges that brings.

“It did take a huge amount of time and many hours waiting for guinea pigs to stop eating for a moment so we could get the ideal close-ups, and there was the added problem of making sure they looked as if they were talking because Olga is a very talented storyteller.

“My own family are huge fans of guinea pigs, and the four Olga actors actually belong to us and we were able to film the series at home in Killearn.

“We were able to do everything from Scotland, including finding an independent company doing the special effects and local actors doing all the animal voices.

“We are thrilled with what we’ve done. The stories are charming and should engage children while at the same time showing them how animals need to be cared for as well as the importance of conservation.”

Director Michael Hines, who also directed Still Game, said: “This series was so much fun to do, we feel sure children will not only learn how pets become part of their family they will have the best time watching all of feisty Olga’s adventures.

“She’s quite a different character from Paddington. I admire her spirit.”

Olga da Polga will be on CBeebies on Saturdays & Sundays at 5.35pm from November 19 and on BBC iPlayer