Those of a certain age and pedigree will recall with fondness Basil Brush, the rebellious fox glove puppet with the upper-class accent who followed the punch-line of his many feeble jokes and puns with the by now familiar "Boom! Boom!" catch-phrase. For former BBC floor manager Ivan Owen (who died in October of last year), Basil Brush was more than just a puppet; Brush was a meal ticket out of a failed career as a theatre actor. Owen created the character of Basil Brush (said to be modelled on the gentlemanly caddish persona of British comic actor Terry Thomas) in 1963. Making his debut television appearance on the ITV show, The Three Scampis, Brush made a moderate impression, but followed this with regular appearances on BBC's Nixon At Nine-Five and Now For Nixon (starring the conjurer David Nixon; aah, those innocent days).
By the end of the 1960s, Owen and Brush had their own BBC show - prime-time Saturday evening, where fall guys such as Rodney Bewes, Derek Fowlds, Roy North and Billy Boyle, along with celebrity guests, were but fodder for the puppet's jibes. While Basil was milking in the publicity and the money, the now millionaire Ivan Owen remained a recluse, driving a Rolls Royce and living a genteel life in Devon, hardly ever speaking to the media and rarely having his photo taken.
Huge television ratings ensured success outside the confines of the goggle box, and Brush broke box office records at various venues around Britain and endorsed more than 70 products. The television programmes were sold to 15 countries (including New Zealand, where the stage show also travelled).
By the arrival of the 1980s, the show was axed due to Owen requesting a later time slot with the projected show's joke content directed at adults. It didn't work, however, and from the mid-1980s Basil Brush and his "Arf! Arf!" bark became more a nostalgia buzz for adults than anything else.
This will change soon, however, for Owen eventually sold the rights of his spiky Brush to Entertainment Rights. The company has plans to revive the puppet in a six-part sitcom, involving an American couple living in London with Basil as their neighbour. You would have thought 20th Century Fox would have picked up the rights, but there you go. Boom! Boom!
