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At first, few actors wanted to clutch a book on the trademark cane chair. But it was a hit with children and by 1990 more than 650 stories had been read by some of Britain's leading actors, including Peter Sellers, Joanna Lumley, Denholm Elliott, Arthur Lowe, Kenneth Williams, Alan Bennett, Maggie Smith, Bernard Cribbins, Judi Dench, and Paul Merton. Prince Charles even read his tale of the Old Man of Lochnagar.