Basil Brush - Basil Brush From 1963 To 1980

Basil Brush From 1963 To 1980

The Basil Brush glove puppet originally appeared on BBC television between 1963 and 1980. The puppet was designed by Peter Firmin, and was voiced and performed by Ivan Owen until his death in October 2000.

Ivan modelled Basil's voice on that of the film star Terry-Thomas, giving the puppet a touch of well-cultivated class. This, plus a degree of sophistication in the humour (which often included topical political jokes) helped give Basil a broader appeal. He began as a children's entertainer; but in the 1970s he became a mainstream variety act, attracting prime time family audiences.

Basil first appeared on television in 1963, as a supporting act for the magician David Nixon. Basil had his own television series on the BBC between 1968 and 1980, The Basil Brush Show, in which he was supported by various famous stooges: firstly, in 1968, by the actor Rodney Bewes, known on the show as "Mr Rodney"; secondly, from 1969 to 1973, by the actor Derek Fowlds (known as "Mr Derek"); then until 1976 by actor and singer Roy North ("Mr Roy"); then by "Mr Howard"; and finally by "Mr Billy". By the mid 1970s the show was aimed at a family audience, so was usually broadcast on BBC 1 in an early evening timeslot on Saturdays (although in the early days it had aired during childrens programmes on Thursdays, prior to the evening news at 5:45pm), typically running for 13 weeks in each series.

The show was recorded in the presence of a studio audience, and usually ran approximately 25 minutes. The format of the show typically featured an opening introduction by Basil and his co-star (Mr Derek, or Mr Roy, etc), in which they would do a few jokes; this was followed by a comedy sketch, featuring them doing topical jokes about a then-current subject (for instance, a sketch set onboard an aeroplane flying them to a holiday in Spain, loosely based around the hit pop song 'Viva Espana'); then a musical item, featuring a guest singer or group (these included some of the most famous singers of the day, top stars such as Demis Roussos in 1973, Petula Clark in 1979, and Cilla Black -- big stars vied to get on the show, which had a huge audience); sometimes the guest singer would do a song, straight, but then also do a comic duet with Basil.

Finally, the show would conclude with 'storytime', in which Mr Derek or Mr Roy, etc, would read aloud from a serial story about the adventures of some fictitious historical relative of Basil's - for instance 'Bulldog' Basil, or Captain Basil and his journey to the stars (a Star Trek spoof), or Basil de Farmer the knight in shining armour; or at least would attempt to, whilst being continually interrupted by a string of jokes and humorous remarks from Basil. Often at this point, in the mid-1970s, Basil would get out his toy dog, which was a clockwork wind-up toy, and have it do humorous tricks at the side, almost off-camera, in order to distract the audience and thereby take the rise out of Mr Roy. Each week's story ended on a cliffhanger: to be continued the following week. Basil and Mr Roy would then finish on a song, based upon that week's serial story, whilst the closing credits rolled.

During this period Basil was also featured in his own cartoon strip in the children's comic "TV Comic", published weekly in Britain by Polystyle Publications Ltd.