Let's Read with Basil Brush (1982)

Produced by Granada Television for ITV's Schools and Colleges strand of programmes, Let's Read with Basil Brush replaced the series Reading with Lenny in Autumn 1982. Each week, Mr Howard (Howard Williams) read a different story about Pepper the Puppy, frequently interrupted by Basil who cracked jokes and made off-topic or irrelevant chatter. Somehow Mr Howard managed to get through the story, and even go on to read a simplified version with text on screen that children could read along with. The purpose of the series was for Basil's enthusiasm to motivate children into learning to read, although feedback from teachers was somewhat less positive than it had been for Reading with Lenny - Lenny the Lion's personality being the polar opposite to Basil! Nevertheless, children of all ages appeared to enjoy watching, perhaps more for the wisecracks and backchat from the familiar puppet than for any educational value. Twenty episodes were shown in the 1982-83 academic year and a further eight episodes added to the repeat run the following year. The series was replaced by Time for a Story, presented by Bill Oddie, from Autumn 1985.