SIR BERNARD CRIBBINS, GOODBYE TO WILFRED MOTT

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Bernard Cribbins, the English actor and singer, well-known by his character of Wilfred Mott in Doctor Who, who has died today.

Bernard Joseph Cribbins (29 December 1928-27 July 2022) was an English actor and singer whose career spanned seven decades.

During the 1960s, Cribbins became known in the UK for his successful novelty records including The Hole in the Ground and Right Said Fred and appearances in comedy films including Two-Way Stretch (1960) and the Carry On series. His other screen roles include Albert Perks in The Railway Children (1970), barman Felix Forsythe in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972) and pretentious hotel guest Mr. Hutchinson in the Fawlty Towers episode The Hotel Inspectors (1975).

On television, he was a regular and prolific reader for the BBC series Jackanory from 1966 to 1991, he narrated the children's programme The Wombles (1973-1975) and played the title role in the CBeebies series Old Jack's Boat (2013-2015).

In the 1966 film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., Cribbins portrayed Tom Campbell, a companion to Dr. Who. Forty-one years later, he began appearing in the revival series of Doctor Who as Wilfred Mott, the grandfather of regular companion Donna Noble and a temporary companion to the Tenth Doctor.

More information: BBC

Bernard Joseph Cribbins was born on 29 December 1928 in the Derker area of Oldham, Lancashire, the son of the cotton weaver Ethel and the First World War veteran John Edward Cribbins (1896-1964).

He had two sisters, alongside whom he grew up close to poverty. He described his father as a jack of all trades who also dabbled in acting. 

Cribbins left school at the age of 13 and found a job as an assistant stage manager at a local theatre club, where he also took on some small acting roles, and then served an apprenticeship at the Oldham Repertory Theatre. 

In 1947, he began national service with the Parachute Regiment in Aldershot, Hampshire, as well as Mandatory Palestine.

Having played Tom Campbell, a companion to Dr. Who in the feature film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966), Cribbins returned to Doctor Who in 2006, when a photograph of him and fellow Doctor Who alumna Lynda Baron at a wedding appeared on the BBC's tie-in website for the television episode Tooth and Claw.

In January 2007, Cribbins had a guest role as glam rock promoter Arnold Korns in Horror of Glam Rock, a Doctor Who audiodrama by Big Finish Productions.

In December 2007, he appeared as Wilfred Mott in the Christmas television special, Voyage of the Damned; he then appeared in a recurring capacity as the same character for the 2008 series, as the grandfather of companion Donna Noble.

He became a Tenth Doctor temporary companion himself in The End of Time, the two-part 2009-10 Christmas and New Year special, when his character was inadvertently responsible for that Doctor's demise. 

Cribbins's role as Wilfred Mott makes him the only actor to have played two companions, and the only actor featured alongside the Doctor's enemies, the Daleks, in both the TV and cinema versions of Doctor Who. 

Cribbins was set to return alongside David Tennant and Catherine Tate in a 2023 Doctor Who episode celebrating the programme's 60th anniversary, which he had been filming before his death in July 2022.

More information: The Guardian

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Wilfred Mott