Remembering the classic kid’s TV show Brum

The series that followed a cute little yellow car with big kind eyes who would sneak out from his museum home to run about helping people and, occasionally, getting into mischief. Before every episode, viewers would wonder, ‘what will Brum get up to next?’ Here’s a look-back at this classic with some added bits of trivia thrown in.

Poor, sweet Brum. On his television premiere he demonstrated his gallantry, rescuing a girl’s doll from a rooftop after some mean bullies snatched it away. In the process, Brum gets a crippling case of vertigo only to be rescued by the fire brigade. All episodes feature this thematic structure: a kind, moral story or an act of generosity with a healthy dose of adventure, that inspires kids to get out there and explore. Every episode followed a formula: Brum sneaking out from his museum home to return in the evening with a memento from his day in his back seat, much to the curiosity of the museum owner.

Other than being an onomatopoeic word – a word denoting a sound, kind of like ‘bang’ or ‘woof’ – for a revving engine, Brum’s name is inspired by the city where the show was made. Brum’s adventures travailed across Birmingham, and ‘Brum’ is a slang version of the city’s name. It comes from the local word, ‘Brummagem’, the locals word for the city in the regional dialect. Local ‘Brummies’ will recognise the streets and landmarks in the show.

Narrator Toyah Wilcox was the front-woman for a successful early 80s UK glam-pop band called Toyah. She was the only voice on the program (apart from the narrators in later versions). The fact the show featured no dialogue by its actors made it easy to duplicate and syndicate overseas, only adding to its international success.

Was there anything Brum couldn’t do? He regularly stopped the robbers of Big Town in their tracks. He also threw surprise parties, helped a bride get to her wedding, and picked up some groceries from the supermarket (admittedly, he wasn’t a great trolley), and more. There is nothing he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, get up to.

Being a sentient, miniature car with a big heart but no mouth had its challenges but Brum did a decent job of getting his messages across. He bobbed his suspension or rocked side to side when he was enthused, excited or worried. He also spun his starter crank (an old school hand-starter on the front of the engine) and waved by opening and closing his doors.

He’s actually a half-scale modified radio-controlled replica of a late-1920s Austin 7 ‘Chummy’. Brum was designed by inventor and robot-maker Rex Garrod, who also presented a TV show titled The Secret Life of Machines and was an entrant in Robot Wars.

You can find the little dude tucked away at the Cotswold Motoring Museum in the village of Bourton-on-the-Water, England. In fact, a recurring human character in the series is the museum owner, Mike Kavanagh, who happened to be the actual owner of the Cotswald Museum until 1999.

The original series featured a dinky and old-fashioned oom-pah tune and in the 2001 reboot Brum got a cheesy, but sweet, dance-pop makeover.

The show ran throughout the early nineties before switching off only to return with a new narrator and new style in 2001. The 2001 reboot Brum came with some new skills such as flight, the ability to function underwater, outrace a passenger jet, and demonstrate something similar to The Force from Star Wars: making inanimate objects move. The second coming only lasted a couple of years but Brum returned in 2016 exclusively to YouTube in simple CGI form aimed at little ones under three.

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