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 puppets, and says his most prized possession is his brush, this being the traditional name for a fox's tail. The original Basil Brush glove puppet was designed by Peter Firmin in 1963 for an ITV television series, and was voiced and performed by Ivan Owen until his death in October 2000. Ivan Owen took great care to ensure that he, personally, never received any publicity. Professionally, only Basil had a public persona, with Owen himself remaining entirely unknown. This helped give the character believability, making Basil appear to be real, since—unlike Harry Corbett and Sooty, for example—the audience never saw