Bernard Cribbins is staging a Doctor Who comeback at the ripe old age of 93.
The veteran star will return alongside Catherine Tate and David Tennant as Wilfred Mott, the grandfather of Catherine’s character Donna Noble.
He has been spotted filming in Camden, London, after production began on the new episodes which mark the sci-fi show’s 60th anniversary next year.
In the scenes, he was spotted being pushed in a wheelchair by tenth Doctor Tennant - and there was a comedy moment when he almost fell out.
Sporting a new blue overcoat, Tennant’s Time Lord also goes into a club called The Modfather.
Cribbins’ character Wilf, who believes in alien life, was thrilled when Donna became the Doctor’s companion and helped to keep her adventures in the TARDIS secret from her overbearing mother.
Cribbins, who narrated The Wombles and was a regular on Jackanory throughout the 70s and 80s, first played Wilf in the 2007 Christmas special and returned for Tennant’s two-part finale, which ended in 2010.
But that wasn’t his first appearance. Nearly 40 years earlier the actor played companion Tom Campbell to Peter Cushing’s version of the Doctor in the 1966 spin-off film Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150AD.
Cribbins, whose wife of 66 years Gillian McBarnet died last year, left school at 13 and forged an acting career spanning seven decades.
Announcing Tennant and Tate’s returns at the weekend, showrunner Russell T Davies teased: “They’re back! And it looks impossible - first, we announce a new Doctor, and then an old Doctor, along with the wonderful Donna, what on earth is happening? Maybe this is a missing story. Or a parallel world. Or a dream, or a trick, or a flashback.”
The 13th Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, leaves the role on screen later this year and Scottish-Rwandan actor Ncuti Gatwa has been announced as the new Time Lord. BBC bosses have not confirmed when he takes over however, stopping short of referring to him as the 14th Doctor.
This has led to speculation that Gatwa will not feature in the regeneration scenes when Whittaker departs in the autumn.
The BBC declined to comment.
