MOST TOUCHING TALE I EVER HEARD

IF YOU’RE of a certain age, you’ll remember a wonderful BBC children’s programme called Jackanory. I hold the record for making the most episodes of that show, and in my opinion that makes me one of the luckiest old codgers on earth because I got to narrate some of the greatest stories ever. Better still, I got paid for it.

One day, I hailed a London cab to Soho for a voice-over recording. The driver asked me what I was up to, as they do. ‘I’m recording a programme about Jackanory,’ I told him. ‘Mr Cribbins’, said the driver, ‘that programme made me want to learn to read.’

Seldom has a single sentence had such a profound effect on me. Jackanory had been devised to stimulate an interest in reading and this was its ultimate triumph. A young lad from the East End, who’d probably had little or no education, sees an episode of Jackanory and wants to pick up a book. It made me really proud.