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
Sophie Evans (magician) Sophie Evans (magician) Sophie Evans is an English magician who lives and works mainly in Las Vegas. She works regularly at the famous Hollywood Magic Castle, in the close-up room and the parlor, as well as onstage in the Palace. An international award-winning magician, she took the coveted Closeup Award in Australia in the mid-1990s, becoming the first woman ever to win an international award for close-up magic. She is best known in England for her work on the BBC's "Sorcerers Apprentice" magical TV series for children. She comes from an established English show-biz family that goes back 4 generations.