As If By Magic...

Chris Hallam pays tribute to an actor better remembered as the voice of Mr Benn

- By Chris Hallam

At 1.30pm on Thursday 25 February 1971, the character of Mr Benn walked cheerfully into many children's lives. The first episode of the animated series saw Benn, an ordinary resident of 52 Festive Road, walk to a fancy dress shop in pursuit of a costume for a forthcoming party. There, having chosen a striking red suit of armour, he proceeded to find himself involved in a fairy tale adventure, before returning home to his normal life shortly before the 15-minute episode reached its end. This would, in fact, happen every week. Sometimes he would dress as a cowboy and find himself in the Wild West, sometimes as a pirate, sometimes a spaceman. But the formula would always be the same. Benn would turn up dressed like an old-fashioned stereotypical Englishman in a bowler hat, every week the mysterious fez-wearing store owner would arrive with the words, "as if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared," Benn would then dress up and have an adventure before changing back and leaving without buying any of the costumes.

Every single episode of Mr Benn (which was based on the books by the late David McKee) was narrated beautifully throughout by the actor Ray Brooks. For such an iconic series, it is something of a shock to learn that only 13 short episodes were ever produced in 1971 and 1972. By the end of the century, the BBC had repeated them close to 50 times. A final 14th episode, also featuring Brooks appeared in 2005.

Despite a long and varied career, Mr Benn is undoubtedly the most enduring thing Brooks ever did. Little wonder that he was keen (though unsuccessful) in his effort to get a picture of the character on the front of his autobiography, Learning My Lines (2009).