Basil Brush very aggressive Scottish hedgehog also made by Peter Firmin. In the mid-1960s Basil became a supporting act for the magician David Nixon, upstaging Nixon on the latter's BBC1 show "Nixon at Nine-Five" in 1967 and "The Nixon Line" (1967–68), to such good effect that the fox was offered his own show. Basil thus acquired his own television series on the BBC, "The Basil Brush Show", which ran for 12 years from 1968 until 1980, in which he was supported by various famous stooges: first, in 1968, by the actor Rodney Bewes, known on the show as "Mr Rodney"; next, from
Basil Brush well-spoken, the voice of Basil is very different to the original Ivan Owen version. Basil Brush often breaks the Fourth Wall by having shots of the set and making references on how long the show is, and abusing the obvious way of walking across to other scenes. The British Film Institute in November 2016 announced "The Basil Brush Show" would be digitised as part of the BFI's five-year strategy for 2017-2022 to preserve shows from the 1970s and 80s. Many of the tapes at the BFI's Conservation Centre in Hertfordshire were reportedly deteriorating and at risk of becoming unplayable. Basil's