[3][4][5] The original Basil Brush glove puppet was designed by Peter Firmin in 1962 for an ITV television series and was voiced and performed by Ivan Owen until his death in October 2000.

This helped give the character believability, making Basil appear to be real, since—unlike Harry Corbett and Sooty, for example—the audience never saw the puppeteer.

This, plus a degree of sophistication in the humour (which often included topical political jokes), helped give Basil a broad mainstream appeal.

), in which they would do a few jokes; this was followed by a comedy sketch, featuring topical jokes about a then-current subject (for instance, a sketch set on board an aeroplane flying them to a holiday in Spain, loosely based around the hit pop song Y Viva España); then a musical item, featuring a guest singer or group (these included some of the best known singers of the day, top stars such as Demis Roussos in 1973, Petula Clark in 1979, and Cilla Black — big stars vied to get on the show, which had a large audience); sometimes the guest singer would do a song straight, but then also do a comic duet with Basil.

At this point, in the mid-1970s, Basil would often get out Little Ticker, his clockwork wind-up dog, and have it do humorous tricks at the side, almost off-camera, in order to distract the audience and thereby take the rise out of Mr Roy.

Basil eventually returned to the BBC as co-host of the long-running children's television series Crackerjack, broadcast at 4:55 pm on Fridays during the 1983–84 season.

Basil Brush also performed in the theatre, regularly appearing live in Pantomime at Christmas; usually co-starring at the top of the bill with a well-known singer or comedian.

In September 1997, Ivan Owen and Peter Firmin sold the rights to Basil Brush to Bill Haslam, a Cornwall-based businessman and a longtime fan of the character.

After a toy-deal with Hasbro was confirmed, the series was retooled and became The Basil Brush Show, which in January 2002 was announced to air on the CBBC Channel in the Autumn.

Basil Brush now had a family, which included his destructive, hyperactive but cute nephew Bingo, and his criminal cousin Mortimer.

Basil Brush often breaks the fourth wall by having shots of the set and making references to how long the show is, and abusing the obvious way of walking across to other scenes.

The British Film Institute in November 2016 announced The Basil Brush Show would be digitised as part of the BFI's five-year strategy for 2017–2022 to preserve programmes from the 1970s and 80s.

Basil played Dobby the house elf in the French & Saunders sketch "Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan" for Comic Relief Red Nose Day 2003.

[20] Basil had a cameo as one among an audience of celebrity guests observing Brian Potter and Andy Pipkin in the promotional video for the Comic Relief version of The Proclaimers' "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)".

On 28 January 2022, he reappeared for a short cameo as a temporary host in reference to Russia perhaps invading Ukraine and appointing a "puppet" leader.

Basil returned to the Chase on 28 August 2022 (Series 13, Episode 1) with Sunetra Sarker, Matty Lee, and David Arnold.

[28] Basil appeared on QI in 2022, in an episode that formed part of the BBC's 100th anniversary commemorations, alongside host Sandi Toksvig and regular panelist Alan Davies