.The two actors (seen here in "The Lady Vanishes" a fantastic early Hitchcock) play a pair of Cricket obsessed Englishmen.
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In both "The Lady Vanishes" and "the Night Train to Munich", they are the comic relief - above the local goings on (even when it is war) in pursuit of the Cricket Scores from England. They are annoyed the locals can't speak English, but keep a stiff upper lip in the face of the heathens.
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There is no real equivelant today. Dense Americans are louts, picture snapping Japanese are faceless and no one who values their financing would make fun of fur-wearing Russian women.
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No, these two (who play Caldicott and Charters) are not bumbling because they are stupid, but just want to get home for the test. Having spent Christmas week with Jane and Eddie - I can believe in them utterly.
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So, seeing the same to actors, in the same role in a second movie - I had to investigate to see if there was more. And I found a nice little summary from a blog "In Character". I shall repeat the details here (site link for full details - and clip).
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Both men had been appearing in films throughout England in the early thirties after some stage work. Neither had worked together before Alfred Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" brought them together in 1938. The duo played the roles of Caldicott (Wayne) and Charters (Radford)..
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Caldicott and Charters are the comic relief in the film, two Englishmen completely obsessed with getting home in time for the cricket match. They probably represent Hitchcock's own satirical view of himself and his countrymen, as the two bumble through the film, being embarrassed to be in the same room with a woman changing clothes, and simply being bewildered and confused the entire time. Their performances together are magical, a kind of alchemy that happens when two performers play off each other instinctively (see Laurel & Hardy).
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The duo were such a hit that their characters were written into the next film by screenwriters Frank Laudner and Sidney Gilliat, "Night Train to Munich" (directed by Carol Reed), and later were spun off into their own film, "A Crook's Tour." This charmingly slight film is thoughtfully provided by the good folks at Criterion on their two-disc version of "The Lady Vanishes," and while the film is a bit of a Hope/Crosby globe-trotting knockoff, the duo are wonderful and actually work quite well as anti-heroes bumbling their way through a spy ring.
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Wayne & Radford would reprise their roles (sometimes named Caldicott & Charters, other times not) in many other film, and even had their own radio show for a while. (ScottM: Some follow up work shows that Basil Radford actually had a heart attack and died while rehearsing their radio show.) And after their death, the characters were even resurrected by the BBC for a short-lived Agatha-Christie-type TV show.
Anyway, they were funny and cool and they just wanted the Cricket Score, Man. The Cricket!!! (said yelling into a long distance phone line is the best way to deliver that line)