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
The Magician of Samarkand The Magician of Samarkand The Magician of Samarkand is a children's book by Alan Temperley which was made into a special three-part television program in 2006 for the British series "Jackanory". The television special starred Ben Kingsley and was produced and directed by Nick Willing. The special was nominated for a BAFTA Children's Award in the category of drama. An evil magician moves into a small town in Asia and becomes enamored by Anahita, a poor girl who is in love with the local prince. The magician wishes to enslave Anahita, so she and her friends scheme to overthrow him.