​Bernard Cribbins was an English character actor, voice-over artist and musical comedian with a career spanning over half a century who came to prominence in films in the 1960s, had been in work consistently since his professional debut in the mid 1950s, and as of 2010 had still been an active performer. He was particularly known to British audiences as the story-telling voice in The Wombles, a children's programme running which ran for 40 episodes between 1973 and 1975. He also recorded several hit novelty records in the early 1960s and was …