Basil Brush will be a rather surprising new addition to the revamped Generation Game, set to air on BBC One later this year.
Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins are to host the new version of the classic game show, and The Sun had the scoop on Basil’s re-emergence from the shadows, as puppeteer Michael Winsor broke down the skinny on the fox’s decision to unretire for the new series:
“It’s top secret at the moment. We are doing pop-ups to surprise Mel and Sue,” he confirmed, before adding “We did one episode and he was such a success we ended up doing four. They want us back on Saturday nights. We want to get the family together watching again. We’re fed up with BGT and Pointless.”
It’s not the first time that Basil will have popped up on The Generation Game – he appeared alongside the late Bruce Forsyth back in 1973 at the height of his fame. The fox’s own series, The Basil Brush Show, ran from 1968 to 1980 (and if you’re in your late-30s or 40s now, he was near-unavoidable). He then staged a successful comeback in 2002 for a 5-year run on CBBC with new puppeteer Winsor’s arm in the driving seat (is it mixed metaphor day again? so soon? – Ed).
There’s no word on what shtick Basil will be returning with. Will it be classic Basil, all “boom, boom!” and kids TV patter? Or sort of like Alan Partridge, but a fox?
Hey, we can dream…