Celebrity fox Basil Brush returned to public life on Monday to pick up a lifetime achievement award after 20 years out of the spotlight.

The gap-toothed puppet was honoured by men's magazine Loaded at its annual Good Work Fella awards.

Both the BBC and ITV have reportedly shown interest in making a new show featuring the character, who was axed from British screens in 1980.

Screen veteran Leslie Phillips was named the greatest living Englishman, while Michael Caine, Sam Mendes and Tom Jones also picked up awards.

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Stones sued in copyright wrangle

The Rolling Stones are being sued for $1m for alleged copyright infringement over the song Saint Of Me, on their 1997 Bridges To Babylon album.

Songwriters Mark Gaillard and Mary Anderson claim the track contains many of the same lyrics and music as a song they originally wrote called Oh Yeah.

They say the engineer for the Stones album, John Bernard, was in the studio when their song was recorded in 1996. Producer Don Was is also being sued.

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Mirren makes directing debut

Emmy-winning actress Helen Mirren will make her debut behind the camera in a made-for-TV sci-fi story.

The Prime Suspect star will direct Happy Birthday, a comic look at a future where machines are equal to humans, for the Showtime cable network in the US.

John Goodman and Christopher Lloyd are among those who will star in the film.

The story will be one of a trilogy to be screened early next year for the cable company.

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Carlton goes interactive

An interactive service for digital terrestrial viewers has been launched by Carlton Television.

Carlton Active will allow viewers to call up recipes onto part of the screen during cookery shows and cast lists while watching films.

The service is initially limited to the Carlton Food Network and Carlton Cinema channels but will be rolled out to other channels later in the year.

Viewers will also be able to interact with some specially-made adverts.