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An all-round entertainer for more than half a century, Bernard Cribbins first captivated national audiences with his talent for comedy timing when he acted in 1960s films such as The Mouse on the Moon (1963) and Crooks in Cloisters (1964), before landing his own television sketch show, Cribbins (1969-70).
The curly-haired, moustachioed actor’s light voice, which switched accents with ease, also saw him break into the Top 30 record charts in 1962 with his novelty songs “Right Said Fred”, “Hole in the Ground” and “Gossip Calypso”.
Then, with his role as the kindly station porter Perks in The Railway Children (1970), Lionel Jeffries’ lovingly made film version of Edith Nesbit’s novel, Cribbins cemented himself a place in the memories of generations of children and adults alike. Jeffries, who adapted the book, had originally intended to play Perks himself but then decided to concentrate on directing the film.
Just a few years later, Cribbins became familiar as the voices of Wimbledon Common’s furry characters in The Wombles television series (1973-75), also narrating the stories adapted from Elisabeth Beresford’s books, which gave him room for improvisation.
“Elisabeth used to write a very minimal script,” he recalled in a 2010 interview at the National Film Theatre. “It took five or six days to do a five-minute animation and I’d add little coughs and sneezes. I used to do at least five minutes of snoring for every episode, for Orinoco.”
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Cribbins also narrated the audio recording of The Snowman (1983), based on the cherished children’s television film, as well as a concert at the Barbican, London, in the same year.
As a storyteller on Jackanory, he held the record for presenting 114 episodes, between 1966 and 1995. In 2009, he told The Independenton Sunday about a cab journey that confirmed his belief in the values extolled by that programme. “The driver asked...