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This article was originally published in Radio Times magazine<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n A couple of years ago, when I was preparing to write a book on the Carry On films and working out who best to interview, there was one name at the top of my wish-list: Bernard Cribbins<\/a>. He\u2019d appeared in three of the series and, on his debut in 1964\u2019s Carry On Jack, been praised by the notoriously critical Kenneth Williams as \u201cthe best droll I\u2019ve seen in years\u201d. The only problem? While Cribbins was still mightily busy and working well into his 90s, he was known to be far happier plying his trade than talking about it to journalists.<\/p>\n The ghost-writer of his lively memoir, James Hogg, suggested I pen a handwritten letter, which he duly delivered to the great man. A few weeks later, I was sitting at my desk when the phone rang. \u201cIs that Caroline? Bernard Cribbins here.\u201d<\/p>\n We had a long, delightful chat about all things from Carry On to The Wombles, but it was clear that, while delighting in meeting fans still touched by his roles in a career lasting seven decades, Cribbins was not remotely sentimental about the craft of acting. To him, it was a job \u2013 even if it was one at which he proved singularly effective, versatile and enduring.<\/p>\n He really could turn his hand to anything. When he worked in the music studio with producer George Martin, his novelty hit The Hole in the Ground saw Cribbins playing both a workman digging a hole and a bowler-hatted busybody. The song became a top ten hit and a favourite of Noe\u0308l Coward, and the follow-up Right Said Fred was another unlikely classic.<\/p>\n