Underground overground... Bernard Cribbins

Just the other month, we were watching a repeated Christmas edition of ITV’s Celebrity Chase and was delighted to see Bernard Cribbins lined up to face the quiz queen Anne Hegerty. He may have needed a chair for the ‘head-to-head' but, for all his ninety years on this Earth, with droll humour intact, he proved his timeless appeal. He won his chase, too!

Bernard has been a household name throughout my life. His early Sixties top ten comedy singles were staples of radio’s Junior Choice. It’s tragic that an equity release company’s advert has ruined my memory of ‘Right Said Fred’ but there’s still an unblemished ‘Hole in the Ground’ to make me smile.

Then there’s his performance as station porter Perks in that schmaltzfest movie The Railway Children (the only bright spot in what I consider to be an overrated celebration of perfect, privileged childhood). As a young person myself, I also remember seeing him star in Carry On Jack amidst the usual crew, and with Peter Sellers and co in the even earlier comedy Two Way Stretch. On the other hand I was, and still am, puzzled by his appearance in the bizarre Hammer Films adventure She.  His character may have been relatively light-hearted but even at the age of twelve I considered it a strange piece of casting.

But this is a celebration of TV legends, and Mr Cribbins certainly wasn’t restricted to the pop charts or cinema. I suppose he was a late arrival to the gogglebox but to a son of the Sixties like me, he will always be associated with BBC1’s storytelling strand Jackanory. I can’t claim to remember any individual books but, in addition to H.E.Todd’s rendering of his amusing Bobby Brewster adventures and the inimitable Kenneth Williams, it’s Bernard who represents the programme for me. It’s hardly surprising because apparently he holds the record for Jackanory appearances – by a considerable margin. Interpreting anything from Aiken to Blyton, Bilbo to Paddington, he could hold us children spellbound by just sitting in a studio and telling a story; no special effects or fancy camerawork needed. Not in the years when I was a regular viewer anyway.

I failed to find any short clips from my era on YouTube and the same was true of the children’s celebrity acting game show Star Turn. With Catherine I probably watched most of the episodes, which were broadcast between 1976 and 1978. Cribbins was the lively presenter trying to control two teams of familiar faces from children’s TV. It was all very entertaining stuff and, if memory serves, our host would end each programme by chucking his question cards up in the air. You’d never catch Magnus Magnusson doing that on Mastermind!

Although I didn’t necessarily realise it at the time, Bernard was also the king of the voiceover or narration, from Tufty’s Road Safety campaigns to Alice in Wonderland. However, he is probably best remembered as the voice of The Wombles. Unsurprisingly his favourite, like most children’s, was the naughty Orinoco but he brought a sense of irreverence, levity and charm to all of Elisabeth Beresford’s long-nosed litter-pickers. For a while I also believed he sang lead vocals on The Wombles’ hit singles, but in my defence the actual singer-composer, I still think Mike Batt sounds not dissimilar to the TV show narrator. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Throughout the decade Bernard would entertain the City Varieties crowd in The Good Old Days, a show I hated, but he was brilliant as an irritating spoon salesman in the first extraordinary series of Fawlty Towers. Repeats apart, I didn’t see a great deal of him for about three decades until, out of the blue, he turned up in one of the most popular series of the late Noughties: Doctor Who.

Playing Wilfred Mott, the world-weary grandfather of Catherine Tate, he immediately provided a different perspective on the everyday dilemmas of a Time Lord on Earth. You know: alien invasions, the end of time, that sort of thing. Yet for a renowned comedy actor, Wilfred was no comic relief. When he wasn’t doing his bit shooting at Daleks he was engaging in philosophical conversations with David Tennant’s Doctor. This wasn’t kids’ sci-fi nonsense; it was dramatic acting of the highest order. Yet I was telling myself that, despite his eyes looking sadder and rheumier, this was really THE Bernard Cribbins!

Bernard may have been approaching eighty but Doctor Who won him new fans and revived his lengthy career. With a mind undimmed by age he became in great demand for comedy panel shows. I missed his Never Mind The Buzzcocks appearance (a Dr Who special, of course) but his career came full circle on Have I Got News For You?  when ‘Hole In the Ground’ formed the basis of an ‘Odd One Out’ round when teamed with Paul Merton. Pointless Celebrities was next, which brings us back to where I started, with The Chase. Mr Cribbins may not have left with wads of cash for his charity but his legendary status was most definitely enhanced.