10 Doctor Who Moments More Important Than You Realised

Bernard Cribbins had quite a journey with Doctor Who.

Having played companion Tom Campbell in the second 1960s Peter Cushing Dalek movie, he made his proper television Who debut as a newspaper seller in Voyage of the Damned – a character later retooled into Donna’s grandad Wilf.

Then, for the Tenth Doctor’s final story, Wilf became a companion in his own right.

To flesh the character out a bit more, Russell T Davies drew on Cribbins’ own experience of serving in the British Army’s Parachute Regiment. Hence why he has that all-important revolver.

In The End of Time Part Two, when Wilf’s looking down at Earth and telling the Doctor about being caught in a blizzard of bullets on a rooftop in Palestine, he’s basically remembering it for real – these lines were added specifically based on Cribbins' own real-life experiences.

And then there's Wilf's iconic hat. For many of his previous appearances (even as far back as Voyage of the Damned), Cribbins had worn his own regimental badge on his beanie. Which means that every time Wilf wears that beanie, there’s a genuine piece of history there on screen, hidden in plain sight. Extraordinary.

Still, the award for Wilf’s most iconic piece of headwear has to go to the reindeer antlers. We don’t make the rules.