From cancelled shows to radio obituaries and being mistaken for his own tribute act! Dave Benson Phillips recalls how falling victim to a cruel death hoax almost derailed his career

For those of us who grew up in the 1990s he was the definitive encounter of children’s Tv. 

Affable, upbeat, normally excitable and forever all set to gunge a hapless instructor or two, Dave Benson Phillips became a domestic identify many thanks to internet hosting roles on Playhouse Disney, The Enjoyment Music Manufacturing unit and Get Your Have Back. 

It all started at Haven Holiday seasons, where by Phillips, now 59, worked as a children’s entertainer just before a traveling to talent scout invited him for an audition at BBC Manchester. 

Far more than a ten years of slapstick good results would comply with, but it pretty practically ended in the most unlikely of areas when his wife Emma answered a panicked contact at their loved ones dwelling in Worthing, West Sussex. 

‘There was a spate of superstar fatalities – supposed celebrity deaths,’ he informed the Joanne McNally Investigates podcast. 

‘To give you an strategy, Neil Buchanan, who was the host of a display termed Artwork Assault, it was reported on the net that he experienced handed absent because of to a heart attack. 

‘The other just one was The Chuckle Brothers, who apparently died of a laughter similar incident, and then they get to me and say that Dave Benson Phillips experienced died in a car or truck crash.

‘I suppose in my scenario, looking back again on it, it landed pretty wrongly – people today believed it!’ 

Reliving the moment he discovered of the hoax, he recalled: ‘I was downstairs cleansing a useless seagull out of the gutters when a good friend I would identified for a prolonged time phoned the residence hoping I would be on the close of the cellphone, discovered my wife was there, and mentioned to Mrs. Phillips, “Is Dave alright?” 

‘She said “yeah he is cleaning out the gutter at the instant”… to which there was a enormous sigh of relief from him, and he mentioned they’d described on the news that I might been killed in a automobile crash.’ 

Worse would comply with when his have mom was sucked into the hoax following clocking in at operate, totally unaware that untrue tales about her son’s death were circulating on line. 

‘My mom, my inadequate mother, she was operating as a nurse at the time, and people today were being providing her a broad berth – all people was a bit peculiar with her,’ he recalled. 

‘One of them plucked up the bravery and explained, “How can you appear in and perform when your son is lifeless?” 

‘Well she dropped every little thing at this position and she bought on the phone, phoned dwelling and she wouldn’t get off the telephone till she heard my voice.’

Phillips discovered the hoax shortly spiraled out of command, creating a domino effect that experienced a devastating impression on his vocation.

Meanwhile, a nearby Sussex radio station was active arranging his obituary. 

‘It is quite possibly the worst detail that can come about, but by the time I acquired to it, it was as well late… men and women ended up believing I was useless,’ he stated. 

‘Shows that I was supposed to be a part of got cancelled, or they uncovered other people today to do the demonstrates. It got really tough. 

‘In my local city they were being two minutes away from doing a radio obituary. The paper got in speak to as effectively. That was really rather bizarre, saying you should never print the obituary because this is me.’ 

Phillips, a devoted children’s entertainer with a penchant for slapstick gags, admitted his major upset was seeing a painstakingly planned nationwide tour virtually derailed by cruel hoaxers. 

He stated: ‘I appreciate undertaking for little ones and my wife and I put collectively this show where there was heaps of music and conversation and things. 

‘It was 25 dates and the entire whole lot acquired cancelled since any person claiming to be my agent reported to all the theatres that simply because I’d passed away they could give the dates up.’ 

Despite ploughing ahead, audience members had been even now persuaded Phillips was useless and buried. 

‘There was a person day where by I turned up and individuals ended up worried mainly because they didn’t feel it was me and assumed I was a tribute act,’ he recalled. ‘It made it tough for me to get perform.’ 

Even so Phillips continues to be eternally grateful for his time on kid’s Tv, notably Get Your Personal Again, a exhibit he hosted from 1994 to 2004.  

‘People still figure out me, even now,’ he said. The sequence took off simply because it was that form of issue that youngsters rushed house from university to view.

‘The they would converse about it at faculty the future day “did you see what Dave did with that trainer? How hilarious!”