The quiet and restrained actor, 84, on exploring like Grampy Rabbit in Peppa Pig, not appearing as Dr Who and firing his bow and arrow at V-2 rockets
I grew up in Goldthorpe, halfway between Doncaster and Barnsley. We’d play soldiers in the Anderson shelter. The Flying Scotsman and the Mallard would come along the railway line. The teachers adored me at school. I was a boxing champion, but highly imaginative, too.
I’d sit outside my house aged six or seven reading the Beano, waiting for my father to get home from the coal mines. I’d see the light from his pit helmet shining through the mist and he’d pick me up with his blackened face and carry me into the house.
