Connections

In 1954 Bernard Cribbins made his West End debut in a musical version of The Comedy of Errors, written by Julian Slade. Slade had seen Bernard in the Hornchurch Players' version of The Recruiting Officer (later recreated for the Home Service - Bernard's first BBC credit). Slade then persuaded Bernard to join the cast of his hit Salad Days at the Vaudeville in 1956. Also in the cast was Myles Rudge, playing Nigel "Anyone for tennis ?" Danvers. 

In 1957 Bernard played Thomas Traddles to Robert Hardy's David Copperfield for BBC tv, directed by Stuart Burge, who had directed The Recruiting Officer for The Hornchurch Players.

Cribbins & Joyce Blair

In 1960, Rudge and Ted Dicks created a revue called "And Another Thing" (with some sketches by Barry Cryer), which starred Bernard, Anna Quayle, Lionel and Joyce Blair, and Anton Rodgers. They gave him "Folk Song" and "My Kind of Someone", a duet with Joyce Blair. George Martin saw the show and signed Bernard to record them as an A and B side for Parlophone. They were both given a full Gordon Franks arrangements, and released in 1960.  George asked Rudge and Dicks for more and got "Hole in the Ground" and "Right Said Fred", hits in 1962.  

1960 was a busy year for Bernard, starring alongside Tommy Steele in "Tommy The Toreador", as Paco, unlikely sidekick to an unlikely Spanish chancer, Sid James.