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 face of children's TV.
Affable, upbeat, always excitable and forever ready to gunge a hapless teacher or two, Dave Benson Phillips became a household name thanks to hosting roles on Playhouse Disney, The Fun Song Factory and Get Your Own Back.
It all began at Haven Holidays, where Phillips, now 59, worked as a children's entertainer before a visiting talent scout invited him for an audition at BBC Manchester.
More than a decade of slapstick success would follow, but it very nearly ended in the most unlikely of places when his wife Emma answered a panicked call at their family home in Worthing, West Sussex.
'There was a spate of celebrity deaths - supposed celebrity deaths,' he told the Joanne McNally Investigates podcast.
Dave Benson Phillips was the face of shows such as Get Your Own Back (pictured), but a cruel death hoax almost cost him his career
Affable, upbeat, always excitable and forever ready to gunge a hapless teacher or two, Phillips became a household name during the 1990s
'To give you an idea, Neil Buchanan, who was the host of a show called Art Attack, it was reported online that he had passed away due to a heart attack.
'The other one was The Chuckle Brothers, who apparently died of a laughter related incident, and then they get to me and say that Dave Benson Phillips had died in a car crash.
'I suppose in my case, looking back on it, it landed very wrongly - people believed it!'
Reliving the moment he learned of the hoax, he recalled: 'I was downstairs cleaning a dead seagull out of the gutters when a friend I'd known for a long time phoned the house hoping I would be on the end of the phone, found my wife was there, and said to Mrs. Phillips, "Is Dave alright?"
'She said "yeah he's cleaning out the gutter at the moment"... to which there was a huge sigh of relief from him, and he said they'd reported on the news that I'd been killed in a car crash.'
Worse would follow when his own mother was sucked into the hoax after clocking in at work, completely unaware that false stories about her son's death were circulating online.
'My mother, my poor mother, she was working as a nurse at the time, and people were giving her a wide berth - everyone was a bit strange with her,' he recalled.
'One of them plucked up the courage and said, "How can you come in and work when your son is dead?"
Phillips says he became aware of the death hoax after a concerned friend read it online and called him at home to ensure he was still alive
Worse would follow when his own mother was sucked into the hoax after signing on for her shift as a nurse, unaware that false stories about her son's death were circulating online
'Well she dropped everything at this point and she got on the phone, phoned home and she wouldn't get off the phone until she heard my voice.'
Phillips revealed the hoax soon spiraled out of control, creating a domino effect that had a devastating impact on his career.
Meanwhile, a local Sussex radio station was busy planning his obituary.
'It is possibly the worst thing that can happen, but by the time I got to it, it was too late... people were believing I was dead,' he said.
'Shows that I was supposed to be a part of got cancelled, or they found other people to do the shows. It got really difficult.
'In my local town they were two minutes away from doing a radio obituary. The paper got in contact as well. That was really quite weird, saying please don't print the obituary because this is me.'
Phillips, a devoted children's entertainer with a penchant for slapstick gags, admitted his biggest upset was seeing a planned nationwide tour almost derailed by cruel hoaxers
'It was 25 dates and the whole lot got cancelled because somebody claiming to be my agent said to all the theatres that because I'd passed away they could give the dates up'
Phillips, a devoted children's entertainer with a penchant for slapstick gags, admitted his biggest upset was seeing a painstakingly planned nationwide tour almost derailed by cruel hoaxers.
He said: 'I love performing for children and my wife and I put together this show where there was lots of songs and interaction and stuff.
'It was 25 dates and the whole lot got cancelled because somebody claiming to be my agent said to all the theatres that because I'd passed away they could give the dates up.'
Despite ploughing ahead, audience members were still convinced Phillips was dead and buried.
'There was one date where I turned up and people were worried because they didn't think it was me and thought I was a tribute act,' he recalled. 'It made it difficult for me to get work.'
However Phillips remains eternally grateful for his time on children's TV, notably Get Your Own Back, a show he hosted from 1994 to 2004.
'People still recognise me, even now,' he said. 'The series took off because it was that kind of thing that children rushed home from school to watch.
'The they would talk about it at school the next day; "did you see what Dave did with that teacher? How hilarious!"
Phillips has since appeared on shows such as Celebrity MasterChef (pictured in 2023)
