From canceled shows to radio ads and being mistaken for his own tribute! 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 television.

Fun, upbeat, always excited and forever ready to shoot 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 started at Haven Holidays, where Phillips, now 59, worked as a children’s entertainer before a visiting talent scout invited him to audition for BBC Manchester.

More than a decade of slapstick success would follow, but it almost 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 — presumed celebrity deaths,” he recounted. Joanne McNally investigates podcast.

Enjoyable, upbeat, always enthusiastic and forever ready to shoot a hapless teacher or two, Phillips became a household name during the 1990s

‘To give you an idea, Neil Buchanan, who hosted a show called Art Attack, it was reported online that he had passed away from a heart attack.

‘The other was The Chuckle Brothers, who apparently died from a laughing-related incident, and then they come to me and say that Dave Benson Phillips had died in a car accident.

“I suppose in my case, looking back on it, it landed very wrong – people believed it!”

Reliving the moment he heard about the scam, he recalled: ‘I was downstairs cleaning a dead seagull out of the gutters when a friend I had known for a long time called the house, hoping I would be at the end of the phone, found my wife there, and said to Mrs. Phillips: “Is Dave all right?”

“She said ‘yes, he’s cleaning the gutter at the moment’… to which there was a huge sigh of relief from him and he said they had reported the news that I had been killed in a car accident.’

Worse would follow when his own mother was sucked into the scam after clocking in to 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 gave her a wide berth – everyone was a little strange to her,” he recalled.

One of them took 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 make sure he was still alive

Worse would follow when his own mother was sucked into the scam after signing up 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 picked up the phone, called home, and she wouldn’t pick up the phone until she heard my voice.”

Phillips revealed that the scam soon spiraled out of control and created a domino effect that had a devastating impact on his career.

Meanwhile, a local Sussex radio station was busy planning his obituary.

“It’s possibly the worst thing that could happen, but by the time I got to it, it was too late… people thought I was dead,” he said.

‘Shows that I was supposed to be a part of got canceled or they found other people to do shows. It became really difficult.

‘In my local town they were two minutes away from doing an obituary on the radio. The newspaper was also contacted. It was really quite strange to say you shouldn’t print the obituary because it’s me.’

Phillips, a devoted children’s entertainer with a penchant for slapstick gags, admitted his biggest regret was seeing a planned nationwide tour almost derailed by cruel con artists

“It was 25 dates and it was all canceled because someone claiming to be my agent told all the theaters that because I had passed away they could give up the dates”

Phillips, a devoted children’s entertainer with a penchant for slapstick gags, admitted his biggest regret was seeing a carefully planned nationwide tour almost derailed by cruel con artists.

He said: ‘I love performing for children and my wife and I put this show together where there was lots of singing and interaction and stuff.

“It was 25 dates and it was all canceled because someone claiming to be my agent told all the theaters that because I had passed away they could give up the dates.”

Despite plowing ahead, the audience was still convinced that 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,” he recalled. ‘It made it difficult for me to get work.’

But Phillips is forever grateful for his time on children’s television, especially Get Your Own Back, a show he hosted from 1994 to 2004.

“People still recognize me, even now,” he said. The series took off because it was the kind of thing kids rushed home from school to watch.

‘They would talk about it at school the next day; “did you see what Dave did with that teacher? How funny!”

Phillips has since appeared in shows such as Celebrity MasterChef (pictured in 2023)