News: Brum comes third in poll of favourite 1990s children’s TV characters

BRUM, a remote-controlled, four-wheeled action hero based on a 1920s Austin Seven “Chummy” convertible, has come third in a poll of children’s TV characters of the 1990s.

The poll, organised by the Radio Times and the British Film Institute, saw 41,000 people vote for their favourite character from a shortlist of 50 drawn from six decades of children’s TV programmes spanning 1950 to the present day.

Brum came third in the 1990 class behind fellow children’s favourites Teletubbies and in first place, Bob the Builder. He was the only car-based character to make the top 3 in any of the six decades.

By night Brum “sleeps” in a motor museum (for filming purposes the Cotswold Motoring Museum in Bourton-on-the Water, Gloucestershire) but each morning cannot wait to have his crank turned before trundling off to Birmingham for adventures.

These have included the time his battery went flat and he was nearly sent to the crusher, the occasion he went deep into the city’s sewers to unblock the drains and the day when Mrs Doolally’s washing was blown away and he tried to catch it.

At the end of each adventure, Brum returns to the museum with some stray item on his seat which the curator tidies away without realising his heroic exhibit has been absent.

Brum has hung up his crank handle for good but can still be seen at the Cotswold Motor Museum.

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