From Coronation Street Wiki

Bernard Cribbins was born on 29th December, 1928 in Derker, Oldham and from a young age had ambitions to become an actor and enter showbusiness. He joined Oldham repertory at the age of fourteen and stayed with them for eight years, taking a break during this period for two years to complete his national service with the Parachute Regiment.

After several years as a professional actor working with the Piccolo Players in Manchester and the Queen's Players in Hornchurch he made his West End debut in 1956 at the Arts Theatre and appeared in comedy productions such as Not Now, Darling and Run For Your Wife. In the same year he made his television debut and appeared, uncredited, in The Yangtse Incident, his first film, the year after. Establishing a reputation for comic roles, he appeared in several of the Carry On... films in the 1960s, released two hit comic records (“Right Said Fred” and “Hole in the Ground”) and appeared in television series as diverse as The Avengers, The Troubleshooters, Armchair Theatre and Space 1999. On the big screen, he starred in She and Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD. In 1969 he was given his own comedy series for television, the eponymous Cribbins, and also added another notch to his cv by being the narrator of the Tufty series of road safety films, the highly successful animated children’s series The Wombles, and the voice of Buzby, the cartoon bird mascot for adverts for British Telecom. In 1975 he made a memorable guest star appearance in Fawlty Towers. Nationally famous, he continued to appear in a variety of television programmes over the next thirty years including, from May to October 2003, con-man and pensioner lothario Wally Bannister in thirteen episodes of Coronation Street. His latest success from 2007 to 2010 has been in several episodes of Doctor Who.

From TARDIS Index File, the free Doctor Who reference.

This article is written from the Real World point of view.

Bernard Cribbins (born 29th December 1928 Oldham, Lancashire, England, UK) played Tom Campbell in Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD and voiced Arnold Korns in Horror of Glam Rock.

A widely respected character actor in the UK, Cribbins has appeared in many films and TV series over the years. He is particularly remembered for his role in the film The Railway Children, and for being a reader on Jackanory more than 100 times. His Doctor Who-related works have included appearing in an episode of Sydney Newman's series The Avengers, as well as an episode of Jon Pertwee's children's show Worzel Gummidge. He also played the taxi driver in the 1967 spoof James Bond film Casino Royale.

More than 40 years after his appearance in the second Daleks movie, Cribbins joined the TV series proper, playing recurring character Wilfred Mott in Voyage of the Damned (the 2007 Christmas special) and the 2008 episodes Partners in Crime, The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky, Turn Left, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End. He returned to the role in 2009 for the final David Tennant specials, the two-part The End of Time.

His long maintained association with Doctor Who is surpassed only by that of Carole Ann Ford, William Russell and Nicholas Courtney. He is one of only a few actors to appear in both the TV series and one of the 1960s movies.

He was one of the actors considered for the role of the Fourth Doctor.

External links

• Bernard Cribbins at the Internet Movie Database