From: malcolm@tosd.demon.co.uk
To: basil@flicks.com
Subject: BASIL BRUSH AND THE NAVY

Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 04:48:25 +0100
I've just found your website, by accident, and was interested to find mention of Basil attending the commissioning of HMS FOX at the invitation of the Admiralty. This is not quite true, but close enough.

I joined FOX when she was building in Lowestoft, as the Petty Officer Writer and Captain's Secretary. My children loved Basil Brush, so I suggested that we should adopt the character as the ship's mascot. I wrote to the BBC, and got a very swift response. A group of us were invited down to the Television Centre to watch the recording of the show on completion of which we presented the show with a ship's crest. We also invited them to visit the ship which they did. This was, as I recall, _after_ commissioning. They descended on us for a day (Ray Butt was the "fixer") and filmed some scenes. In one of these I had to stand behind the chart table and was "introduced" to Basil as the Navigator (which I was not). On completion of filming the model of Basil was presented to the ship, and was kept in a glass case in the main passageway outside the sick-bay.

HMS FOX was sold a few years ago and is, I believe, now a private yacht.

Regards

Malcolm Clarke