Ivan Owen

Ivan Owen, children's entertainer, born August 19 1927 was the actor who voiced the contradiction in the British character between love of stuffiness & love of anarchy. He brought to life Basil Brush, the truculent & bouncy children's television & stage fox puppet, for which he donated his best county voice. Part of Basil's magnetism came from the misalliance between his voice - said to have been modelled on the gentlemanly caddish actor Terry Thomas - & his outrageous behaviour. Though Basil, with his "Boom! Boom!" warcry, would never have taken a back seat, Owen always seemed anxious to do so. Describing himself as a "failed actor", he ran a Rolls-Royce & lived a civilised life in a large Devon house, but made it an iron rule never to be photographed or give interviews. He got his chance to become a national non-figure in 1966, when Basil appeared on David Nixon's BBC-TV conjuring show, The Nixon Line. The tall, bald conjuror was often upstaged by the restless, relentless puppet, who was sometimes described as the best thing on the show. In 1968, Basil & Ivan got their own BBC Saturday early-evening show. Basil's straight men were the long-suffering butts of dreadful jokes and puns: Likely Lads actor Rodney Bewes was followed by "Mr Derek" (Derek Fowlds), Roy North, Howard Williams & Billy Boyle. The fox made Owen a millionaire & created a Basil Brush industry. This included stage tours which drew the crowds - they broke box-office records at Croydon & filled the Blackpo…