At the age of twenty, he played rugby for Beckenham RFC[3][failed verification] during the 1924–25 season alongside a seventeen-year-old James Robertson Justice, who would later become an actor.

On 26 June 1923 Cradock was commissioned from the Inns of Court Officers' Training Corps into the Territorial Army as a second lieutenant in the 52nd (London) Anti-Aircraft Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery.

Wearing a traditional blazer and sporting a monocle, he would remain around the back of Fanny's studio sets awaiting her imperious commands which, when they came, often resulted in his being berated for being too slow.

Johnnie and Fanny also wrote the "Bon Viveur" restaurant column for The Daily Telegraph newspaper from 1950 to 1955.

[12] Johnnie Cradock's style of dress, his love of wine, and the on-screen "hen-pecked" relationship he shared with Fanny were all ripe for mimicry.