Lassie rescued many children from old mineshafts. The Lone Ranger yodelled “Hi-Yo Silver!” countless times when chasing the bad guys away. Postman Pat once helped Jess escape from down a hole in Greendale. But none of them has proved sufficient to rescue Entertainment Rights, the company that owns the rights to these characters, from a potentially disastrous situation.

Entertainment Rights issued its second profit warning in as many months after breaching covenants and receiving a £1 million emergency loan in August. It has been granted a covenant waiver to avoid another breach this month.

The company’s balance sheet is still under pressure after the purchase of Classic Media, the owner of Lassie and the Lone Ranger, for £106.9 million last year. It reported an operating loss of £105 million for the eight months to August 31, with turnover of £20.3 million. This loss was mainly caused by a writedown of £83 million in the value of some of its children’s characters and franchises.

Regarding the writedown, Nick Phillips, chief executive of Entertainment Rights, said: “We had to get a value that really reflected the value of these assets.”

Entertainment Rights is also likely to suffer a £10 million hit to this year’s pretax earnings as negotiations for the extension of US broadcast content and disposal of its noncore music publishing rights are likely to conclude next year.

He declined to say which of the company’s other famous names, such as Basil Brush or Rupert Bear, had declined in value or which brands might go under the hammer.

The company hopes that a high-profile film of The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp as Tonto, will help to reignite demand for the Lone Ranger franchise, as Depp’s turn as Captain Jack Sparrow helped boost takings for Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. The company has also revamped Postman Pat, renamed Postman Pat Special Delivery Service, which saw Pat upgrade his van to a helicopter, for the BBC.

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