Basil Brush
Basil Brush is a reddish-brown
fox glove puppet who has appeared in
British children's (and later adult) television programmes from the 1960s to the present day. He was originally voiced by the late
Ivan Owen (who died in 2000). He is noted for his catchphrase
Boom! Boom!, and famously spoke with a '
posh'
accent. His most prized possession is his brush (tail).
He was created in 1963 by
Peter Firmin for
The Three Scampies children's show but he became really popular following appearances on magician
David Nixon's series
The Nixon Line.
In 1968 Basil was given his own television series
The Basil Brush Show. Throughout the show's 12-year run Basil was always accompanied by a
straight man, initially
Rodney Bewes - aka Mr Rodney - better known as one half of
The Likely Lads.
Bewes was replaced by Mr Derek -
Derek Fowlds of
Yes, Minister fame - who was the stooge for Basil's quips between 1969 and 1973. The subsequent presenters were Mr Roy -
Roy North ('73-'77), Mr Howard - Howard Williams ('77-'79), and Mr Billy - Billy Boyle ('79-'80).
Basil recorded two albums (both with the same title):
Boom! Boom! It's Basil Brush (1970) and
Boom! Boom! It's Basil Brush (1977). His adventures also appeared on the pages of
TV Comic during the peak of his popularity.
In 2002, Basil made a comeback in a new children's
BBC sitcom, again named
The Basil Brush Show, in which his new comic foil, Mr Stephen, was played by
Christopher Pizzey. Georgina Leonidas and Michael Hayes also appear on the show. Although no-one is directly credited as playing Basil on this show (and he was credited as playing Himself when he appeared on
French & Saunders in 2004), the most likely candidate is
Michael Winsor who is credited as "Basil's personal assistant" (fitness assistant in earlier episodes).
He also briefly appeared as a presenter for several Friday episodes of the popular British children's programme
Blue Peter in 2003 in which he had his own joke segment.
Basil played
Dobby the
house-elf in the
French & Saunders sketch "
Harry Potter And The Secret Chamberpot Of Azerbaijan" for
Comic Relief Red Nose Day 2003.
On
10 December 2005, Basil appeared on
The Weakest Link and won the show, receiving £10,900 for his chosen charity, the
Blue Peter 2005 charity appeal, "Treasure Trail" (in aid of
Childline). This makes him the first (and at the time of writing, only) puppet to win
The Weakest link (
Roland Rat had previously appeared as a puppet contestant, but did not win).
Basil Brush was mentioned briefly in the
Black Books episode "Blood," wherein Manny purchases a "large-print biography of Basil Brush," which he describes as "quite good."
The current puppet is clearly different in a number of respects from the original 1960s vintage.
*
*
Official Basil Brush website*
BBC website on Basil Brush*
British Film Institute Screen Online*
Ivan Owen Obituary -
The Guardian
