If I could travel anywhere in the universe, it would be the place that is narrated by Brian Cant. As that doesn’t actually exist, then I’d pay a king’s ransom to merely sit in a room and listen to him talk. If Oliver Postgate was there too, you could stick a fork in my brain and I’d die happy. You see, of everyone I’ve ever seen, heard, endured on the box, no-one comes close to Brian Cant.

My first memory of hearing Brian Cant’s wonderful voice was during the ’80s, when I was but a toddler. I used to screw my face up at all the mullet headed goofballs who would thumbs-aloft-wacky at you and coo and titter in patronising tones. I didn’t think that originally of course, I just knew they weren’t as good as the repeats of Trumpton and Camberwick Green that I used to watch. It took me a while to learn the word ‘patronising’. Anyway, at that point, Cant was merely this voice that glided silk-like through these country idylls, singing songs about markets, bread makers and the like. I’m still convinced that it’s through Cant’s simple songs that I love folk music so much now.

Then, one day, Brian Cant had a face. I saw him on a show called Dappledown Farm where he played a farmer who had a talking horse. They’d natter and gently jibe each other between episodes of Will Quack Quack and the like. Again, Cant was in super laid-back mode and I suddenly realised that he was that voice. Then I remembered seeing him on Play School. It was a revelation!

No matter what Brian Cant did, I loved. Testament to the great man is that I still love him and that delivery of his, to the point where I own records that feature little more than his voice. Where some TV spuds give the impression that they ‘turn it on’ for the cameras, Cant always gave the impression that he was being himself. It was no surprise to me when I found out how he got his TV gig in the first place.

When he went for the auditions for a children’s programme to be shown on BBC Two, he was asked to get in a cardboard box and ‘row out to sea’. Without much hesitation, he was cast as a presenter, and stayed with the BBC for eighteen years. Whaddaguy!

A couple of years ago, Cant was named as the best-loved voice from UK children’s television, in poll for Underground Ernie magazine… and rightly so. But I’d go one further. Brian Cant is the owner of the finest voice in human history. Keep your great tenors and vocal gymnasts… I’m sticking with Mr Mellow.