Bernard Cribbins: The Shocking Truth!

Bernard Joseph Cribbins OBE, born on 29th December 1928 in the Derker area of Oldham, Lancashire, England, UK, was an actor & singer whose career spanned almost 8 decades. Bernard became well known in Britain during the '60s for his novelty hit singles The Hole in the Ground and Right Said Fred, along with his appearances in comedy movies including Two-Way Stretch (1960) & a couple of the Carry On series. His other big screen roles included those of the astronaut Vincent Mountjoy in The Mouse on the Moon (1963), Albert Perks, the station porter in The Railway Children (1970) then Covent Garden pub landlord Felix Forsythe in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972). Cribbins played pretentious hotel guest Mr Hutchinson in Fawlty Towers episode The Hotel Inspectors (1975), a spoon salesman who's mistaken by Basil for a hotel inspector. He was the most regular celebrity reader for the BBC series Jackanory from 1966 to 1991. He narrated kid's programme The Wombles (1973-1975), later playing the title role in the CBeebies series Old Jack's Boat (2013-2015). Bernard portrayed Tom Campbell, a companion to Dr. Who, in feature film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.(1966), before appearing in the revival series of Doctor Who 41 yrs later as Wilfred Mott, the grandad of regular companion Donna Noble & a temporary companion to the 10th Doctor.