Early career Cribbins made his first
West End theatre appearance in 1956 at the
Arts Theatre, playing the two Dromios in
A Comedy of Errors, and co-starred in the first West End productions of
Not Now Darling,
There Goes the Bride and
Run for Your Wife. In 1960, he starred alongside
Anna Quayle and
Lionel Blair in the revue
And Another Thing, written by
Ted Dicks and
Myles Rudge. The show brought Cribbins to the attention of
Parlophone head
George Martin, who signed Cribbins to the label to record a single of a
satirical song from the show titled "Folk Song". Subsequently, Rudge and Dicks were asked to provide new material for Cribbins; their compositions "
The Hole in the Ground", about an annoyed workman who eventually buries a harasser, and "
Right Said Fred", about three workmen who struggle to move an unspecified heavy and awkward object into or out of a building (later also the
name of a pop novelty band who named themselves after the song), were top ten hits on the
UK Singles Chart in 1962.
Narration and voice work Cribbins was the narrator of the British animated children's television series
The Wombles from 1973 to 1975 and also played the character of the Water Rat in a
BBC Radio adaptation of
The Wind in the Willows. He also narrated the audio tape of the
Antonia Barber book
The Mousehole Cat. From 1974 to 1976, Cribbins narrated
Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings. He also provided the voice of
Buzby, a talking cartoon bird that was the mascot for the
Post Office. In 1981,
Music for Pleasure released a
Swallows and Amazons audio book on tape cassette, read by Cribbins, abridged by Edward Phillips. From 1987 to 1991, Cribbins starred as Jimmy Bright alongside
Frank Thornton as Russell Farrow in
Mind Your Own Business on
BBC Radio 2, which also starred
Annette Crosbie. Cribbins also provided the voiceover work for
A Passion For Angling, starring
Chris Yates and Bob James (1993). In 1996, he played Puddleglum the marshwiggle in
Brian Sibley's BBC Radio adaptation of
C. S. Lewis's
The Silver Chair. In 2013, he played Old Bailey in the radio adaptation of
Neverwhere, dramatised by
Dirk Maggs and in 2015 he was among an ensemble cast in an audio production of
The Jungle Book, in which he played the White Cobra. His other TV appearances include
The Avengers (1968),
Fawlty Towers (1975, as the spoon salesman Mr Hutchinson who is mistaken by the character
Basil Fawlty for a hotel inspector),
Worzel Gummidge (1980),
Shillingbury Tales (1980) and its spin-off
Cuffy (1983). These programmes concluded with Cribbins narrating a detective story as recurring character "Ivor Notion", with a script usually by
Johnny Ball but sometimes by
Myles Rudge, the co-writer of his Top 10 singles. He starred in the
BBC's 1975 Christmas production
Great Big Groovy Horse, a rock opera based on the story of the
Trojan Horse shown on
BBC2 alongside
Julie Covington and
Paul Jones. It was later repeated on
BBC1 in 1977. He regularly appeared on BBC TV's
The Good Old Days recreating songs made famous by the great stars of Music Hall. Among his later TV appearances were
Dalziel and Pascoe (1999),
Last of the Summer Wine (2003), Although Agyeman and Cribbins both played companions and supporting characters during
David Tennant's tenure in
Doctor Who (appearing in six episodes together), ''Old Jack's Boat
was the first time the two actors had appeared together on screen. On 9 May 2015, Cribbins gave a reading at VE Day 70: A Party to Remember in Horse Guards Parade, London, which was broadcast live on BBC1. He made his final on screen appearance as Wilfred Mott in the second 60th anniversary episode Wild Blue Yonder'' in December 2023; although he was due to appear in the third of the three episodes and more material had been written for him, Cribbins was too ill and so this became his only scene. In November 2018, it was announced that Cribbins would portray
Private Godfrey in a
series of re-creations of lost episodes from the BBC
sitcom ''
Dad's Army''. However, Cribbins left the production in February 2019 citing "personal reasons". The role of Godfrey was later played by
Timothy West.
Later stage career Cribbins' later theatre credits include the roles of Nathan Detroit in
Guys and Dolls at the
National Theatre, Moonface Martin in
Anything Goes with
Elaine Paige at the
Prince Edward Theatre, Dolittle in
My Fair Lady at the
Houston Opera House,
Texas and Watty Watkins in
George Gershwin's
Lady, Be Good at the
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and on tour. He also appeared in numerous
pantomimes. at the
Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Celebration Weekend in 2013
National Life Stories conducted an interview (C1173/14) with Cribbins on his memories of
Richard Negri in 2006 for its An Oral History of Theatre Design collection held by the
British Library.
Doctor Who 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'' actor
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" (although in the closing credits, his character was named as "Stan"); he then appeared in a recurring capacity as Wilfred Mott 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 His appearance, in "
Wild Blue Yonder" (2023), aired posthumously; the episode was dedicated to his memory. ==Honours==