Hilda Wright was born on April 29th, 1914. She was the eldest of six children in a family that lived at Castleford. Her father, a miner, died when she was young. Hilda gained a scholarship to attend Castleford Grammar School and went on to Peterborough Ladies' College to qualify as a teacher. She married Donald Brabban, a teacher at Normanton Grammar School.

In 1951 she sent three stories to the BBC that were broadcast in the radio series Listen with Mother. The characters of two flowerpot men and a weed were based on her brothers Bill and Ben Wright and their sister Phyllis. She was paid a guinea for each story and acknowledged the BBC had the rights to the characters. In 1952 BBC Television launched Watch with Mother with Bill and Ben being the programme shown on Wednesdays. It was a success despite some adults being worried about the characters' childish talk. When a new series was made in 2000 the names of Bill and Ben were familiar to many. Hilda died recently at the age of 88.

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