Bernard Cribbins

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)

Bernard Cribbins

Born	December 29, 1928 (1928-12-29) (age 79) Oldham, Lancashire, England
Other name(s)	McDermott

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

1 Career
2 Television
3 Films
4 UK chart singles
5 Albums
6 References
7 External links

Career

Born in 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. Cribbins co-starred in the first West End productions of Not Now Darling, There Goes The Bride and Run For Your Wife. Cribbins co starred in the revue An Another Thing, from which he made a number one single from the show called "Folksong." He later released the comedy records "Right Said Fred" (in which a group of workmen struggle to move 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 his mid-20's, 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 iconic Tufty character in the Green Cross Code road safety films in the 1970s. 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, which later became British Telecommunications and was reduced to OO gauge in adverts for Hornby model trains.^[2]

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", a character who reappears in the 2008 season as the grandfather of Donna Noble.^[3]