Boom Boom! Basil Brush, Mr Blobby & Bungle Aiming For Christmas No. 1

The fight for the 2022 Christmas No. 1 just got foxy! And… puppety. Children’s TV veteran Basil Brush (he of ‘boom boom’ fame) has thrown his cravat in the ring in the fight to top the festive charts by releasing Christmas single ‘Boom Boom! It’s Christmas Again’. 

The full video recently premiered on Basil Brush’s YouTube channel (yes, he has one of those):

The video for this nostalgia-heavy Christmas single sees Basil Brush go full Time Lord, riding a time-travelling sleigh through the years to reunite with a host of familiar faces from the world of childhood entertainers, from the 1960s to the current day.

That’s right: get ready to feel seriously old. As well as the nineties nightmare fuel otherwise known as Mr Blobby, there are appearances from Rainbow trio Bungle, George and Zippy, Treguard from Knightmare, Evil Edna from Willo the Wisp, and Muffin the Mule, who even predates Basil himself.

CBBC’s Hacker T Dog and Oucho the Cactus also feature, presumably to win the ‘youth’ vote, and there’s also an excellent cameo from Santa with the memorable line ‘Bless my puddings – it’s a flying fox!’

Fans of The Basil Brush Show – whether the original 1970s version or the early 2000s remake – will recognise characters including Chris Pizzey, plus a certain someone whose appearance might just warm your cockles.

As Christmas singles go, it’s uncharacteristically earnest for Basil Brush, and could even bring a tear to your eye. And to heap the Christmas cheer even higher, all the proceeds from the single will also be donated to two children’s charities: Save the Children and Shooting Star Chase children’s hospice. It’s due to be released on Friday the 25th of November, when it will be downloadable from all major streaming platforms.

This isn’t the first time Basil Brush has made a bid for Christmas No. 1: back in 2003, he released Boom Boom/Christmas Slide (featuring India Beau, a character in the Basil Brush Show’s reboot), which reached number 44 in the charts:

And to give the fox credit, he’s got range: as well as rapping in the Christmas Slide, he also released the punk and rock-inspired video ‘I’m Gonna Dream This Christmas (That It’s 1979!)’ last Christmas, with proceeds again going to the Shooting Star children’s hospices.

For reasons which still escape us, Mr Blobby – who co-stars with Basil Brush in ‘Boom Boom! It’s Christmas Again’ – somehow reached Christmas No. 1 on his own back in 1993 with his imaginatively titled ear worm of a single, ‘Mr Blobby’ – a school disco earworm for nineties’ kids everywhere.

If Basil Brush achieves his foxy little dream of Christmas No. 1 this year, it will stop 2022 from becoming the fifth year in a row that the festive charts are topped by YouTube stars LadBaby. And okay, ‘Boom Boom! It’s Christmas Again’ isn’t exactly Slade, but this is as good a reason as any to make it Christmas No. 1.