i.m Bernard Cribbins

 

That birthday scene

in The Railway Children

that always makes me cry. 

Pride, dignity, modesty,

and a certain pig-headedness,

too. Cribbins embodied those

values in his portrayal of everyman

porter Perks. We should have

feared the worst news was coming

 

when he didn’t turn up in the sequel.

Other working-class traits?

The Hole in the Ground

and Right, Said Fred.

Experience, good sense,

knowing when to call it a day.

The Hole in the Ground

was one of Noel Coward’s

Desert Island Discs, they say.