A British television documentary about two Dutch artists and inventors has generated global interest in a Dutch teenager and his dead pet rat.

The 13-year-old enlisted the help of Arjen Beltman and Bart Jansen to do something spectacular with his dead pet rat Ratjetoe (ratatouille) earlier this year.

Jansen hit the headlines in 2012 when he turned his pet cat which had been run over by a car into a ‘cat copter’ and slapped a €12,500 price tag on it at an Amsterdam art show.

Jansen and Beltman stuffed the dead rat and attached three propellors to it, turning it into a remote controlled flying machine.

The story of Pepijn Bruins’s dead pet and the documentary it features in was picked up by the Daily Mail and has since gone all over the globe. The family, local media report, have been overwhelmed by the interest.