If there’s something familiar about the central character – and all those big smiles – in Flushed Away, it’s because this animated feature comes from the team that created the Wallace and Gromit cartoons. Aussie actor Hugh Jackman is the voice of Roddy, the pampered and lonely pet rat who lives in swish London digs. When Roddy’s human owners go on holiday, Sid the sewer rat gatecrashes and in no time at all flushes the not-so-sewage-wise Roddy down the loo. Down below, he finds an entire bustling rat city being threatened by the villainous Toad (Sir Ian McKellen), who plans to flood the city by opening the sluiceways during halftime on World Cup Final day, banking on the prediction that everyone will use the toilet at the same time (yuck). Cleverly written and executed by Aardman Animations and DreamWorks, and intertwined with a mesh of British and American comic traditions and companies, there are laughs aplenty. Watch especially for the Marcel Marceau scene.

Encores 7, 9, 10 Jul.

HBO Family, Channel 68