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Bernard Cribbins

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Bernard Cribbins
SpouseGillian Cribbins (present)

Bernard Cribbins (born 29 December 1928 in Oldham, Lancashire) is an English character actor and musical comedian.

Career

Born in Derker, Oldham, he served an apprenticeship at the Oldham Repertory Theatre, taking a break during his years of study to undertake National Service with the Parachute Regiment in his late teens.[1]

Cribbins made his first West End theatre appearance in 1956 at the Arts Theatre playing the two Dromios in A Comedy of Errors and went on to co-star in the first West End productions of Not Now Darling, There Goes the Bride and Run For Your Wife. He also starred in the revue An Another Thing, and recorded a single of a song from the show entitled "Folksong". In 1962 he recorded two highly popular and well-remembered comedy records, "Right Said Fred" (in which a group of workmen struggle to relocate a large unspecified object, possibly a piano) and "Hole in the Ground" (in which an embittered workman murders a bowler-hatted harasser).[1]

Cribbins appeared in films from the early 1950s, his portfolio including three Carry On films, the second Doctor Who film Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, and as the station porter, Perks, in The Railway Children. He was the narrator of the British animated children's TV series The Wombles. He also narrated a celebrated BBC radio adaptation of The Wind in the Willows and provided the voice of the Tufty character in RoSPA road safety films in the 1960s. He holds the record for reading the most episodes of Jackanory, with a total of 111 appearances. Other television appearances included Fawlty Towers, as the spoon salesman Mr. Hutchinson (mistaken by Basil Fawlty for a hotel inspector) in the episode "The Hotel Inspectors" (1975). He also provided the voice of Buzby, a talking cartoon bird that served as the mascot for the then General Post Office,[2] He also appeared reduced to OO gauge in adverts for Hornby model trains.[3]

In 2003 he played Wally Bannister in the long running soap Coronation Street. In 2007 he appeared as Wilfred Mott in the Doctor Who Christmas special, "Voyage Of The Damned,"; he then reappeared as the same character throughout the 2008 season, now revealed as the grandfather of Donna Noble.[4]

He is also the narrator of The Way We Were, a 2008 series broadcast on ITV.

Television

Films

UK chart singles

  • "Hole In The Ground" (1962)
  • "Right Said Fred" (1962) which inspired the name of the band "Right Said Fred".
  • "Gossip Calypso" (1962)

Albums

  • A Combination Of Cribbins (1962)
  • The Snowman (1983) (narrator)
  • The Very Best of Bernard Cribbins (2005)

References

  1. ^ a b "Bernard Cribbins". Gavin Barker Associates. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  2. ^ which later became British Telecommunications
  3. ^ (http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/491092)
  4. ^ "Into the Future!", Doctor Who Magazine, pp. p. 4, 19 September 2007 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  5. ^ BBC Trailer, 2008-06-22 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/episodes/?episode= ignored (help)
  6. ^ "30 Reasons to be Excited about Series 30", Doctor Who Magazine, no. 393, pp. p. 10-11, 2008-03-06 (cover date) {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)

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