Bernard Cribbins, OBE (29 December 1928 - 28 July 2022) was a veteran English actor and singer, known for being the voice of The Wombles and for his appearances as Wilfred "Wilf" Mott in Doctor Who.
He debuted on stage at the West End in 1956 in The Comedy of Errors and continued in theatre shows for the rest of the '50s, and then released three comedy songs in 1962: "Right Said Fred", "The Hole in the Ground" and "Gossip Calypso". They were produced by The Beatles producer George Martin and were very successful in the UK Singles chart, with "Gossip Calypso" just about scraping the top 30. The band Right Said Fred (of "I'm Too Sexy" fame) are named after one of his songs.
Cribbins' first film appearance was Two-Way Stretch in 1960 and mostly stuck with comedies. In 1963 and '64, he briefly joined the popular Carry On film series as the leading straight man in Carry On Jack and Carry On Spying, which were really successful at the British box office. Two years later, he appeared in the Doctor Who movie Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. as Constable Tom Campbell and featured in She, and appeared in '70s films Frenzy and The Railway Children.
At this point, Cribbins mostly appeared in voice acting, particularly for children's TV shows. He did the voices for the characters from The Wombles, appeared over 90 times in Jackanory, provided the narration for the original Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings, and voiced cartoon mascots for TV business commercials, as well as a couple of radio appearances.
Cribbins made some appearances on television as well, such as The Avengers, Worzel Gummidge, Fawlty Towers, and even had a TV series of his own called Cribbins on ITV. He returned to the world of Doctor Who in the mid-2000s to portray the grandfather of the Tenth Doctor's companion Donna Noble, before becoming a companion himself (at 81, the oldest in the show's history) in the 2009 Christmas special "The End of Time", which featured the departure of David Tennant from the series. He later filmed a short scene for "Wild Blue Yonder", which aired a year and a half after his death. It was his final acting job.
In the 2010s, Cribbins continued to make brief appearances on television, but mostly stuck to appearing onstage around the UK; young children that watch CBeebies may have watched his show Old Jack's Boat. He received an OBE in 2011 for his services to drama and received the JM Barrie award in 2014.
He passed away on 28th July 2022 at the age of 93.
If you aren't familiar with his work, however, you might recognise him from some commonly-used Doctor Who reaction GIFs, including one of him crying
◊ from "The End of Time", which has been used even in regions where Doctor Who isn't traditionally broadcast at all.
His roles in works with pages on TV Tropes:
Film
- Two-Way Stretch (1960) — Lennie "The Dip" Price
- The World of Suzie Wong (1960) — Otis
- The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963) — Nervous O'Toole
- Carry On Jack (1964) — Midshipman Albert Poop-Decker
- Carry On Spying (1964) — Harold Crump
- She (1965) — Job
- Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966) — Tom Campbell
- Casino Royale (1967) — Taxi Driver
- The Railway Children (1970) — Albert Perks
- Frenzy (1972) — Felix Forsythe
- The Adventures of Picasso (1978) — Gertrude Stein / Narrator
- Play Safe (1978) — Robin
- Alice in Wonderland (1985) — Mock Turtle (voice)
- Carry On Columbus (1992) — Mordecai Mendoza
- Run for Your Wife (2012) — Hospital Patient
- A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2012) — The Voice
TV
- The Army Game: episode "Don't Send My Boy to Prison" (1960) — "Peanuts" Perry
- The Avengers episodes:
- "The Girl from Auntie" (1966) — Arkwright
- "Look - (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers—" (1968) — Bradley Marler
- Jackanory: 112 episodes (1966-95) — Storyteller
- Fawlty Towers: episode "The Hotel Inspectors" (1975) — Mr. Hutchinson
- The Sooty Show: 2 episodes (1975)
- Jackanory Playhouse: episode "The Sleeping Princess" (1976) — King Ferdinand
- Space: 1999: episode "Brian the Brain" (1976) — Captain Michael
- Worzel Gummidge: episode "The Golden Hind" (1981) — Jolly Jack
- Tales of the Unexpected: episode "The Memory Man" (1983) — Charlie Krebs
- Super Gran: episode "Supergran and the Birthday Dambuster" (1987) — Officer P. Brain
- Noel's House Party:
- 3 episodes (1991-96) — Victor the Vicar
- 1 episode (1997) — Mad Dog
- Dalziel and Pascoe: episode "Time to Go" (1999) — Uncle Henry
- Last of the Summer Wine: episode "In Which Gavin Hinchcliffe Loses the Gulf Stream" (2003) — Gavin Hinchcliffe
- Barbara, episode "Guy Fawkes" (2003) — Frank
- Coronation Street: 12 episodes (2003) — Wally Bannister
- Doctor Who: 10 episodesshow list (2007-10, 2023) — Wilfred Mott
- Midsomer Murders: episode "The Flying Club" (2014) — Duggie Wingate
- New Tricks: episode: "Last Man Standing": Parts 1 & 2 (2015) — DCI Ronald Sainsbury
Western Animation
- Noddy Goes To Toyland (1963 animated short) — Big Ears, Mr. Tubby Bear, and Mr. Plod (uncredited)
- The Wombles: 60 episodes (1973-75) — Narrator
- The Water Babies — (1978) — Mr. Masterman / Voice of Eel
- The Further Adventures of Noddy (1983 pilot) — Narrator, Noddy, Big Ears, Clockwork Mouse, and Bert Monkey
Radio
- The Man (BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play, 2006) — The Man
Tropes associated with his work:
- Acting for Two: He famously voiced all of the characters in The Wombles.
- Cool Old Guy: As Wilfred Mott.
- Friend to All Children: Many of his characters were this, and was often viewed as such in real life.
- Playing Against Type: Doctor Who enabled him to play a straight role, contrasting with his more frequent comedic roles.
- What Could Have Been: He was considered for the role of the Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who.
