Brian Cant obituary
He was not on the list.
“HERE’S a house. Here’s a door. Windows – one, two, three, four ... Ready to play? What’s the day? It’s Tuesday.” For those of us who were British, small and watching television between the mid 1960s and the mid 80s, those words, spoken by the much-loved children’s TV presenter Brian Cant, who has died aged 83, in his soothing, gently laconic baritone, are liable to provoke a Proustian rush.
For two decades from 1964 there was scarcely a BBC show
aimed at little children that didn’t come with Cant’s distinctive tones. It was
his voice that weekly introduced us in the late 60s to the townsfolk of
Camberwick Green (1966), the puppet show created by Gordon Murray. “Here is a
box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play,” he would tell us at the start
of each episode. “But this box can hide a secret inside. Can you guess what is
in it today?” And it was Cant who did the prosodically captivating roll call
for the fire brigade in Camberwick Green’s sequel, Trumpton (1969): “Pugh,
Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb.”
Both shows, and the third of the trilogy, Chigley (1970), were set in an idealised English county, Trumptonshire, and suggested what we realised with hindsight to be the evident nonsense that a crime-free Britain ran like clockwork and that adult life was an orderly affair. Cant’s voice was the aural signature of these affairs. In 2007 he topped a children’s magazine poll to find the best-loved UK kids’ television voice, with Oliver Postgate, the voice of Bagpuss, second, and David Jason third for voicing the cartoon hero Danger Mouse.
Sensibly, Cant was modest about his effect on grown-ups
nostalgically recalling their childhoods. “It’s obviously very kind and very
rewarding to have that effect but I can’t believe it was that important to
everyone,” he said once.
Cant might not have achieved such iconic status except for his ability to improvise with imaginary custard. In 1964 he was performing in a proto-Horrible Histories BBC TV drama about the Romans when he learned that auditions were taking place for a new show aimed at pre-schoolers. Joy Whitby’s Play School (1964-88) was aimed at taking kids’ TV to a new level, beyond such cherished favourites as Andy Pandy, The Flower Pot Men and Muffin the Mule.
At the audition Whitby asked Cant to climb into a cardboard box and row out to sea. He gamely did so, then dropped an imaginary fishing line in the water and, seconds later, hauled in his catch, a wellington boot filled with custard. How did he convince the audition there was custard in the wellie? Through the power of suggestion, most likely.
Cant remained on Play School for 21 years, long after its original target audience had moved not only on to solid foods, but into gainful employment. Some critics might be tempted to suggest that he and the other presenters – Floella Benjamin, Derek Griffiths and Johnny Ball among them – were overshadowed by the stuffed toys (Big Ted, Little Ted, Jemima, Humpty and Hamble), but that would be unfair: to sing, tell stories and otherwise captivate an audience composed mostly of under-fives is no mean feat, as any parent will tell you.
“One of the main rules of those Play School days was that we should play to the camera as though we were talking to one child,” said Cant in 2010. “It could be somebody in a tower block, a nice semi-detached somewhere, or a royal palace. You had to phrase everything so that, whoever was watching it, they felt you were talking to them.
In 1971 Cant became, along with Toni Arthur, one of the
regular presenters of Play Away (1971-84), aimed at slightly older children.
Other presenters included, incredibly, Jeremy Irons, Julie Covington, Patricia
Hodge and Tony Robinson. In his subsequent career he combined his work
presenting children’s TV in shows such as Bric-A-Brac (1980-82) and Milkshake!
(from 1997) with theatre, touring in plays such as Run for Your Wife, Doctor in
the House, The Railway Children and The Canterbury Tales, in addition to
pantomimes.
In 1984 Play Away was cancelled, and his services were no longer required on Play School. “All my regular programmes disappeared in one fell swoop,” he recalled. “Play Away had really run its course, but I was, rather unfortunately, considered too old for Play School.” That year, his first marriage to Mary Gibson having ended in divorce, he married the writer and director Cherry Britton and they went on to have three children.
Born in Ipswich and educated at Northgate grammar school for boys, Cant initially had dreams of playing football for Ipswich Town, having trained for the club as a youth. Instead, after some years working as a printer, he turned to acting, and an early review of his performance in an amateur production of the thriller Safe Harbour in 1957 judged that “Mr Cant does incredibly well within the terms of an almost embarrassingly inept caricature.” The following year he turned professional and spent the summer season in rep at Buxton, in Derbyshire. By the early 60s he was appearing in dramas such as the ITV police series No Hiding Place, before joining Play School.
Later Cant appeared on TV in more grown-up fare, including Casualty, Doctors, and Doctor Who. He had two roles in the last of these and was twice killed off, first by a Dalek and in another episode by a Quark, which he recalled was “a little polystyrene box-shaped creature that contained a schoolboy. I was from a pacifist planet and I had to wear a long skirt with a long pipe stuck up it which came to just below the neckline. When I was killed off, smoke belched out of this pipe for some reason. It was rather odd.”
But he carried on entertaining children. Younger Britons remember him not for Play School or the Trumptonshire dramas but as Brian the farmer in Dappledown Farm (1990–2003) and for his work from 2003 on two Channel Five kids’ shows, MechaNick and The Softies.
In one interview he defended the idea of children’s TV against the idea that it could be stupefying for kids. “No-one would suggest sitting there doing nothing but watching television, that’s obvious,” he said. “But programmes like Play School were always done with the idea that when it finished, the children could go away and try things themselves.”
In 1999 he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but as late as 2011, after having been awarded a special Bafta honouring his career, he was still acting – making his third appearance in Doctors.
He is survived by Cherry and their children, Rose, Christabel and Peter, and by two sons from his first marriage, Nicholas and Richard, the latter of whom is also an actor.
Brian Cant,
television presenter and actor, born 12 July 1933; died 19 June 2017
Actor
Doctors (2000)
Doctors
4.7
TV Series
Albert Simmonds
Arthur Seabridge
Derek Richmond
2000–2011
4 episodes
Richard Briers, Carole Boyd, Brian Cant, Hayley Carmichael,
Bernard Cribbins, Maria Darling, Pui Fan Lee, Dominic Frisby, Kulvinder Ghir,
John Gordon Sinclair, Kate Harbour, Mike Haley, Mark Heenehan, Jimmy Hibbert,
Sean Hughes, Peter Kay, Jonathan Kydd, Ronnie Le Drew, Yuri Lowenthal, Lewis
Macleod, Marcello Magni, Michael Maloney, Neil Morrissey, Oliver Postgate,
Simon Shelton, Marc Silk, John Simmit, Roy Skelton, Nikky Smedley, Ringo Starr,
Tim Whitnall, Rob Rackstraw, Brian Sandford, Brenda Longman, Keith Wickham, Tom
Oldham, Malcolm Lord, Mark Mander, Steven Kynman, Janet James, Nick Kellington,
Rebecca Hyland, Joanna Ruiz, Matthew Bloxham, Tegwen Tucker, David Carling, and
Glenn Moore in Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band: The Official BBC Children in
Need Medley (2009)
Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band: The Official BBC
Children in Need Medley
8.2
Music Video
Miss Lovelace (voice)
2009
Torn Up Tales
9.5
TV Movie
Voice Over (voice)
2008
Casualty (1986)
Casualty
6.1
TV Series
Billy Hargreaves
2005
1 episode
Jay Jay the Jet Plane (1999)
Jay Jay the Jet Plane
3.8
TV Series
Narrator (UK)
1999–2001
80 episodes
Michael French and Nigel Havers in The Gentleman Thief
(2001)
The Gentleman Thief
6.4
TV Movie
Prof. Pinkton (uncredited)
2001
Richard Herring and Stewart Lee in This Morning with Richard
Not Judy (1998)
This Morning with Richard Not Judy
8.4
TV Series
The Organ Gang Narrator (voice)
1998–1999
Watch and Learn: Keeping Safe
Video
Brian
1996
Christopher Lee in A Feast at Midnight (1994)
A Feast at Midnight
6.6
Mr. Hill
1994
Playbus (1988)
Playbus
7.1
TV Series
1991–1992
2 episodes
Dappledown Farm (1990)
Dappledown Farm
7.9
TV Series
Brian
1990–1999
Richard Briers, Peter Egan, and Penelope Wilton in Ever
Decreasing Circles (1984)
Ever Decreasing Circles
7.3
TV Series
Vince
1989
1 episode
Screenplay (1986)
Screenplay
6.5
TV Series
Doctor
1988
1 episode
Jackanory (1965)
Jackanory
7.1
TV Series
Storyteller
1984–1988
10 episodes
Panto-Time!
TV Series
Jack
Mother Goose
Photographer ...
1986–1987
3 episodes
Dramarama (1983)
Dramarama
6.6
TV Series
Walter Percival
1984
1 episode
Aladdin and the Forty Thieves
8.0
TV Movie
The Emperor
1984
Bric-A-Brac
7.9
TV Series
Shopkeeper
1980–1982
13 episodes
Toni Arthur and Brian Cant in Play Away (1971)
Play Away
7.7
TV Series
Richard Lovelace
1974
1 episode
Ronald Pickup in The Dragon's Opponent (1973)
The Dragon's Opponent
TV Series
Term Officer
1973
1 episode
Rupert Davies in The Man Outside (1972)
The Man Outside
6.8
TV Series
Motor enthusiast
1972
1 episode
Play for Today (1970)
Play for Today
7.8
TV Series
Policeman
1971
1 episode
Seeing and Believing
TV Series
Bildad
1971
1 episode
The Doctors (1969)
The Doctors
6.9
TV Series
Police Sergeant
1970
2 episodes
James Ellis and John Slater in Z Cars (1962)
Z Cars
7.1
TV Series
Rupert Bonner
Doctor
1967–1970
3 episodes
Phyllis Calvert and Jack Hedley in Kate (1970)
Kate
6.0
TV Series
Peter Spriggs
1970
1 episode
Peter Barkworth, Robert Hardy, Cyd Hayman, and Alfred Lynch
in Manhunt (1970)
Manhunt
7.3
TV Series
German Sergeant
1970
1 episode
Chigley (1969)
Chigley
7.5
TV Series
Narrator (voice)
1969
13 episodes
Jack Warner in Dixon of Dock Green (1955)
Dixon of Dock Green
6.9
TV Series
John Pritchard
Hayward
Bill ...
1963–1969
5 episodes
The Expert (1968)
The Expert
8.1
TV Series
Tom Storey
1969
1 episode
Paul McGann, Colin Baker, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, William
Hartnell, Sylvester McCoy, Jon Pertwee, and Patrick Troughton in Doctor Who
(1963)
Doctor Who
8.4
TV Series
Tensa
Kert Gantry
1965–1968
3 episodes
The Spanish Farm
TV Series
Dr. Hequet
1968
2 episodes
Roger Foss and Laurence Payne in Sexton Blake (1967)
Sexton Blake
7.0
TV Series
Police Constable
1967
1 episode
Trumpton (1967)
Trumpton
7.4
TV Series
Narrator (voice)
1967
13 episodes
ITV Play of the Week (1955)
ITV Play of the Week
6.9
TV Series
PC Austin
Raglan
1964–1967
2 episodes
John Carson and Glyn Houston in Girl in a Black Bikini
(1967)
Girl in a Black Bikini
TV Series
Det. Con. Ashwood
1967
6 episodes
Georgina Ward in Weavers Green (1966)
Weavers Green
7.8
TV Series
Bill Thorpe
1966
1 episode
The Sandwich Man (1966)
The Sandwich Man
5.5
Newspaper Photographer (uncredited)
1966
Bernard Lee in King of the River (1966)
King of the River
TV Series
Tom
1966
1 episode
Death Is a Good Living (1966)
Death Is a Good Living
TV Mini Series
Doctor
1966
1 episode
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1966)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
TV Series
Sergeant
1966
1 episode
A Game of Murder (1966)
A Game of Murder
8.2
TV Series
Sgt. Fuller
1966
1 episode
Camberwick Green (1966)
Camberwick Green
7.6
TV Series
Narrator (voice)
1966
13 episodes
Theatre 625 (1964)
Theatre 625
7.5
TV Series
Mr. Healey
1966
1 episode
Legend of Death
TV Series
Arnold
1965
2 episodes
The Pleasure Girls (1965)
The Pleasure Girls
5.8
Man in Pub (uncredited)
1965
A Man Called Harry Brent (1965)
A Man Called Harry Brent
7.8
TV Series
Telegrams Operator
Booth
1965
2 episodes
The Airbase
TV Series
Promote Peace Campaigner
1965
1 episode
Compact (1962)
Compact
7.2
TV Series
Sven Krog
1965
1 episode
Play School (1964)
Play School
7.0
TV Series
Window Cleaner
1965
1 episode
Detective (1964)
Detective
7.6
TV Series
Det. Sgt. Bailey
1964
1 episode
No Hiding Place (1959)
No Hiding Place
7.7
TV Series
Det. Sgt. Barnes
1964
1 episode
Patrick Allen in Crane (1963)
Crane
7.9
TV Series
Man
Kramm
1963–1964
2 episodes
The Sentimental Agent (1963)
The Sentimental Agent
7.2
TV Series
Special Branch Man
1963
1 episode
Alfie Bass and Bill Fraser in Bootsie and Snudge (1960)
Bootsie and Snudge
7.2
TV Series
Police Constable
1962
1 episode
Sir Francis Drake (1961)
Sir Francis Drake
7.1
TV Series
Corporal
1961
1 episode
The Secret Kingdom
TV Mini Series
3rd Miner
1960
1 episode
The Long Way Home (1960)
The Long Way Home
5.3
TV Series
1st P.O.W.
1960
1 episode
Writer
MechaNick (2003)
MechaNick
5.0
TV Series
Writer
2003
3 episodes
A House That's Just Like Yours (2003)
A House That's Just Like Yours
TV Series
collaborating writer
2003
1 episode
Panto-Time!
TV Series
written by
1986–1987
3 episodes
Toni Arthur and Brian Cant in Play Away (1971)
Play Away
7.7
TV Series
Writer
1981
1 episode
Play School (1964)
Play School
7.0
TV Series
script
scriptwriter
1966–1971
25 episodes
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