Charlie had a think and he thought we ought to take off all the handles

[sovay]

Because pop-culturally speaking I grew up in almost any decade but the one I was born in, as soon as I saw the news of the death of Bernard Cribbins, my brain immediately started on loop with "Right Said Fred" (1962), which along with its fellow novelty hit "The Hole in the Ground" was how I first heard of the actor, although it is an almost sure thing that I saw him first in the same episode of The Avengers which double-duty introduced me to Alfred Burke. I was in the vicinity when my father was regularly watching the Tenth Doctor, so I did catch him as Wilf at the time; it took me until much more recently to appreciate him in Carry On Jack (1964), Carry On Spying (1964), and The Railway Children (1970). His presence was an active inducement to watch all three. I am glad he is being remembered so fondly. My internet has not died, but it has slowed to a glacial crawl for the last twenty-four hours and taking off the hinges has produced predictably no results, so I am intermittently around.

Comments

[dewline]

A life well-lived with much contribution to the public culture of the worlds is still a thing to be unhappy to see someone else reach the end of.

[lauradi7dw]

Is it selfish of me that I was immediately grateful that he had already filmed his parts for the Dr. Who 60th anniversary special (to air in the fall)?
I don't know that it's romantic, exactly, for him to have gone within a year of losing his wife, but it's notable, anyway.

[sovay]

Is it selfish of me that I was immediately grateful that he had already filmed his parts for the Dr. Who 60th anniversary special (to air in the fall)?

I don't think so. I'd want to finish the thing I was working on first.

I don't know that it's romantic, exactly, for him to have gone within a year of losing his wife, but it's notable, anyway.

Lloyd Alexander was like that.

[thisbluespirit]

♥ He was also like the voice of a million children's shows, so that helps with the affection levels. I'm glad you got to see him properly in some things more recently as well.

[sovay]

He was also like the voice of a million children's shows, so that helps with the affection levels.

I can see how it would!

I'm glad you got to see him properly in some things more recently as well.

He was a delightful ornament to Carry On and I wanted to write about The Railway Children because I had read it in elementary school, but never seen the very famous film, and it was as good as its reputation. My life overtook me and I'm not sure when I'm going to get out of it, though.

[thisbluespirit]

I have seen parts of or most of that film, I think, but I'm not sure if I've ever actually watched it straight through! I'm glad it lived up to the Daddy-my-Daddy hype. :-)

I do like him in Spying quite a bit actually, although as a child I had very fierce Carry On feelings re. people who were not Proper Carry On people taking Proper Carry On people's places, and he was very obviously a Kenneth Connor replacement, so he still gets glared at by me inner 11-yr-old, no matter what adult!me thinks. XD (Although tbf it is very hard even now not to think of Wombles, and that is distracting, heh.)

[sovay]

I'm glad it lived up to the Daddy-my-Daddy hype.

Look, I'm always happy to see Iain Cuthbertson myself!

(I don't know if I would rate it the best children's film of the twentieth century or whatever, but it is a faithful and evocative version with a lot of nice details, like a fourth-wall curtain call for the credits and heritage trains throughout. I didn't imprint on the book as a child, but I did have feelings about it, and the film did well by it. spatch had never read the book and enjoyed the film, too.)

[shewhomust]

Whereas that is precisely the decade I grew up in, so that while the BBC was being nostalgic about children's television, and Doctor Who and the Wombles (a show I would, incidentally, pay good money to watch), my brain was reflecing that you never get nowhere if you're too hasty ...

[sovay]

Whereas that is precisely the decade I grew up in, so that while the BBC was being nostalgic about children's television, and Doctor Who and the Wombles (a show I would, incidentally, pay good money to watch), my brain was reflecing that you never get nowhere if you're too hasty ...

It's a good moral to be remembered by!

[mrissa]

My God, I had no idea that Right Said Fred [the fascist one-hit wonder band] had taken their name from a charming and innocuous song. What a thing, I wonder how he felt about it. (I hope my guess is correct.)

[sovay]

My God, I had no idea that Right Said Fred [the fascist one-hit wonder band] had taken their name from a charming and innocuous song.

I had no idea there was a fascist one-hit wonder band called Right Said Fred! What a time to be alive.

The song hangs out in my head for appropriate occasions, so that it manifested mentally for both the recent installation of the air conditioner and much of last month's move.

[mrissa]

They were responsible for the song "I'm Too Sexy" in the early '90s and have now leaned into the less savory parts of the antivax movement in the UK.

[sovay]

They were responsible for the song "I'm Too Sexy" in the early '90s and have now leaned into the less savory parts of the antivax movement in the UK.

That is an incredibly depressing trajectory.