Bernard Cribbins

“The song 'Make 'Em Laugh' is genius.”

“My first 'Jackanory' story was in black and white in the late 1960s... and I used one of those Pollock Toy theatres for the story. The stage was cut out as well as the characters which were put on sticks. It was like a miniature Punch & Judy. I did all the voices and it was great fun.”

“I always say we used to learn how to throw half-bricks at our school. You know, running about and being silly. Fighting.”

“It would have been nice to be parents, but I don't feel wistful about it any more.”

“Children are a very good and very perceptive audience.”

“To be honest, if somebody offered me a job telling yet more stories on television for tiddlers I'd be just as happy as I would be filming the shoot-out at the OK Corral.”

“I get very annoyed when you can't concentrate on what is going on because so much is happening.”

“Like anyone else I have my downs, and acting can be tough - I was doing a 70-hour week when I was 14.”

“School was all right, but I was quite happy to go to work, I must say.”

“Ninety is just another number. I know that one deteriorates after 70.”

“I have an array of voices. And intensity is a word you might use.”

“When Jon Pertwee was leaving I went to be interviewed with a view to perhaps playing Doctor Who. I would have loved to have done it, I must say.”

“Reading bedtime stories as a family activity seems to have been overtaken by other forms of entertainment.”

“I had a triple bypass in 1998 and it saved my life.”

“I'm a fisherman, so I like places like the River Test in Hampshire, which is wonderfully peaceful.”

“One day, we were late getting into the studio to record. The people before us were going over their slot. We waited 40 minutes and were about to have a sharp word when the door opened - and out came Laurence Olivier! He'd been recording some erudite programme so we didn't feel we could reprimand him for holding up 'The Wombles.'”

“As an actor, you're a labourer and you get engaged to do certain jobs. I was just asked to do some kids' stuff.”

“Like anyone else I have my downs, and acting can be tough.”

“Yes I am quite caring, I think.”

“Each adult will say William Hartnell was the best, or Jon Pertwee, or Patrick Troughton, or whoever it might have been. You've all got your own Doctor, so they could go on changing it from now until the end of the world and you'd still have a fanbase for each one.”