Dave Benson Phillips

Dave Benson Phillips
Born	(1965-02-03) 3 February 1965
Died	laying a brick.
Nationality	British
Other names	The Ultimate Gunger
Occupation	Children's television presenter
Years active	1981–present
Spouse	Emma (1 child)
Website	www.davebensonphillips.co.uk

Dave Benson Phillips (born 3 February 1965) is a British children's television presenter who gained high popularity as the host of the children's game show Get Your Own Back, shown on BBC One (later CBBC) between 1991 and 2003. In 2005 he was among the select few honoured by induction into the Children's Walk of Fame. Benson Phillips has a particular interest in children with special needs, amongst whom his Makaton sign language video is extremely popular. He also donates many hours to charity work both in the UK and abroad.

Career

Benson Phillips started his career in 1981 at the Polka Children's Theatre in Wimbledon where, as a Theatre Usher, he was bitten by the performing bug and duly set out to learn the art of entertaining children. He appeared in various magic and music shows and even helped out with the making of props and costumes.

Benson Phillips furthered his "education" by becoming a Bluecoat at Pontins Holiday Camp, the training ground for many of Britain's popular entertainers. It was there, after a brief period as a song and dance man, that he realised he was much happier performing to children. He went on to work for Haven Holidays as a Children's Uncle where he got his big break into television. He was spotted by the BBC and given the chance to appear in Playbus, which later became Playdays, a programme that ran successfully for nine years.

On Playdays, Benson Phillips was on the "Playground Stop" segment, in which he taught viewers about Makaton, a basic sign language which is typically used with special needs children.

This led to Benson Phillips being given his own show by the BBC, the popular BAFTA nominated Get Your Own Back, of which there were 14 series. He was given another major series in 1996, this time for ITV, called Disney's Wake Up in the Wild Room, which was aired every Saturday morning for nearly two years.

Benson Phillips is well known for starring in the Fun Song Factory video series, which was televised for ITV. He has also presented other television programmes including the CITV series Petswap, co-presented by Fearne Cotton, Nick Jnr for Nickelodeon and Words and Pictures and Go For It for BBC Education. Benson Phillips is also well known for his work on the Disney Channel, presenting the children's cookery programme Bitesize and presenting as "Big Dave" on the Cable Guide Award winning Playhouse Disney with co-presenter "Little Alex" Lovell.

Benson Phillips donned a furry suit to play Bouma the food-loving Yeti in the big-budget CBBC cookery show Planet Cook alongside his good friend, TV Chef Kevin Woodford. The series is enjoying another airing on Channel 4.

Benson Phillips' voice appeared on many radio programmes including Playtime for the BBC and on the animation series Dream Street for ITV as the characters "Jack Hammer" and "Ice Cool". He also starred as "Big Blue" in the Sony Playstation game Smarties Meltdown.

Benson Phillips continued to perform to live audiences throughout his career, including touring with Get Your Own Back – Live! and The Dave Benson Phillips Show, plus one of his self-professed proudest moments, singing at the London Palladium as part of the Children's Royal Variety Performance. In 1999, he made his first appearance in a musical, playing "Eddie Hair" in The Demon Headmaster, which toured throughout England. Benson Phillips and his "furry friend" Big Bear toured the Haven Holiday Villages on the south, west and east coasts in a successful nine week summer tour.

Benson Phillips has recently been inducted into Britain’s only Children's Walk Of Fame, as voted for by the nation's children. His plaque can be seen at Drusilla's Park, Alfriston, East Sussex along with other inductees: Sooty, Peter Rabbit and The Cheeky Girls.

In 2007, Benson Phillips celebrated 25 years in the business of entertaining children.

In 2008 Benson Phillips released two musical CDs, Dave's Are We There Yet? and Dave's Nap Attack. He was also one of the support acts for the group, McFly, at their Brighton concert.

2011 found Benson Phillips spending his time writing scripts for pre-school TV shows and creating new theatre shows for children with his entertainment company, Chester Benson Productions Ltd, which he runs with his wife, Emma. He also toured the country with live shows and music concerts for children and adults.

The pair also indulged in their love of classical music and worked with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to write and produce classical music concerts for children. They already have six very successful concerts under their belt, including an original score by composer Ian Stephens (along with Benson Phillips) to the classic rhyme, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt". It premiered to a capacity crowd at their last Teddy Bears Picnic concert and won rave reviews.

Benson Phillips has stated that he hopes that, one day, the "Bear Hunt" will be used as an introduction to the world of classical music for the world's young children, just like Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

In complete contrast to all the works he is known for, Benson Phillips also works as a DJ at clubs, events and universities around the UK.

False internet claims

In 2009 Benson Phillips' career came to a grinding halt when he unwittingly became the victim of a cruel and life-altering hoax. An announcement by persons unknown on the internet, claiming that Benson Phillips had been killed in a car crash while on one of his concert tours, was accepted as truth by many members of the public, media and entertainment industries. Other celebrities and people in the public eye were also targeted during this spate of "fake death hoaxes" but Benson Phillips' was more widely believed than most, due possibly to the fact that he was actually on tour at the time. As a result, the rest of his theatre tours and live shows were cancelled by the venues he was due to visit and the two long-term children's television projects that he had created and successfully negotiated for were immediately abandoned by the TV stations that had commissioned them.

Also cancelled were Benson Phillips' exclusive range of educational toys, games, books and a series of Makaton Sign Language DVDs. Benson Phillips was devastated by the effect the hoax had on his career, his business and his personal life. He did what he could to let everybody know that he was alive and that he was the victim of a hoax. But, by that point, the damage was done. For the first time in his career, Benson Phillips found himself out of work. To date, the culprits responsible for the hoax have never been found.

Other career-damaging internet rumours about Benson Phillips followed that same year. All of them were untrue but, as with the death hoax before, were believed by many, particularly by people in the entertainment business. Through no fault of his own, Benson Phillips became a performer no one would hire or work with. He had become a pariah. With his reputation damaged and TV career gone, Benson Phillips set about the lengthy and arduous task of dispelling the rumours and started rebuilding his life and his career. Benson Phillips has not performed in front of a camera or appeared on television since 2009.

Fortunately, not everybody believed the rumours. People came forward and offered Benson Phillips the chance to write, create, host, entertain and perform on some performance projects – and, in one particular case, appear as the rumbustious Mr. Toad in a UK theatre tour of The Wind in the Willows. Benson Phillips has stated that he is truly grateful to the people who helped him and worked with him during that difficult time.

Benson Phillips' ADHD

Benson Phillips' bubbly and sometimes overly-enthusiastic attitude might be due to the fact that he was born with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).

The diagnosis for Benson Phillips was confirmed two years after he had left high school. The third of five children, Benson Phillips had a tough time growing up with such an affliction as nobody thought to make a diagnosis when he was much younger. For years, everybody thought he was a very strange and extremely stupid boy and he was the target of much jibes, taunts and constant bullying. Benson Phillips did his best to cope with it during his teens and into adulthood but it was not easy. Performing became essential in channeling Benson Phillips' energies.

Benson Phillips came out in 2007 and spoke about his experiences with ADHD. In an interview for an educational newspaper, he was quoted to have said "I don't suffer from ADHD... everyone around me suffers from ADHD..."

Even in adulthood, Benson Phillips' ADHD shows no sign of abating.

Personal life

Benson Phillips lives with his wife, Emma. In 2010, the couple became parents. They have described their Son, Benjamin, as "the best production we've ever worked on". The three of them currently live in Worthing, west Sussex. Benson Phillips has had a passion for music from an early age. He also runs a show equipment transportation company, an inflatables hire company and a company that creates shows for theatres and live events.

Filmography

• Wake Up in the Wild Room
• Fun Song Factory
• Playdays
• Get Your Own Back
• Planet Cook
• Petswap
• Playhouse Disney
• Bite Size
• Dream Street
• Celebrity Juice
• Is That A Fact?
• Nick Junior
• Jack In The Box
• Rat Kan II
• Words & Pictures – The Gruffallo Story
• Cat's Eyes
• Q & A
• Go For It!
• CBBC's Proms In The Park

Videos and DVDs

• Fun Song Factory
• A Day Full of Surprise and Songs
• Makaton - Nursery Rhymes
• Wow! That's What I Call Nursery Rhymes
• Get Up And Go
• Dave And The Animals
• Wiz Waz's World of ABC
• Wiz Waz's world of 123
• The Magical World Of Animals
• Roald Dahl - The Enormous Crocodile
• First Bible Stories
• Bourne Leisure Health & Safety Film

External links

• Dave Benson Phillips' website
• Biographical entry at UKGAMESHOWS.com
• Dave Benson Phillips at IMDb
• disco dancing dave, a computer-animated musical website
• A page from the Children's Walk of Fame website highlighting three of its inductees—Chris Packham, Dave Benson Phillips (listed as Dave Benson-Philips) and The Story of Tracy Beaker (listed as Tracey Beaker)
• dailymail.co.uk