Christopher Ryan

Christopher Ryan (born Christopher Papazoglou; 25 January 1950) is an English actor. Ryan is perhaps best known for his role as Mike "The Cool Person" in the BBC comedy series The Young Ones.

Early life

Ryan was born in Bayswater, London and trained at East 15 Acting School from 1968 to 1971. He began his professional acting career with Glasgow Citizens' Theatre in 1971.

Career

Ryan was the only Young Ones cast member who was not already well known in British comedy circles (the other principal parts being taken by The Comic Strip members Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Alexei Sayle). He was a last-minute replacement for Peter Richardson, for whom the "straight man" role of "Mike" was originally intended.

In 1987 he starred in the short-lived BBC sitcom A Small Problem. He played "Lucky" in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the Queen's Theatre in the West End in 1991, alongside Mayall and Edmondson.^[1] He later played "Dave Hedgehog" in Bottom, and "Marshall Turtle", one of Edina's unloved ex-husbands, on Absolutely Fabulous. He has also appeared in two major sitcoms: he played one of the Driscoll brothers in an episode of Only Fools And Horses and spin-off The Green Green Grass, a pair of identical twin builders in the One Foot in the Grave episode "Hole In The Sky", and a plumber in the episode "The Valley of Fear". He appeared in Back to School Mr. Bean, in two episodes of My Family, in Saxondale. He joined up again with Jennifer Saunders for two episodes of The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle.

In 1986, he appeared in the science fiction series Doctor Who as the alien creature Lord Kiv in the serial The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp, and as one of the rose-painting playing cards in the 1999 TV version of Alice in Wonderland. In 2008, he again guest starred in Doctor Who in the episodes "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky", as the Sontaran leader "General Staal",^[2] and in the 2010 episode "The Pandorica Opens", playing another Sontaran character, "Commander Stark". In 2012 he appeared in the role of "Marshall" in Episode 3 "Olympics" of the Absolutely Fabulous 20th Anniversary Specials.

Although his film appearances were few, he played small roles in Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) and the 1993 film Dirty Weekend, directed by Michael Winner.

Ryan starred as Baron Hardup in the pantomime of Cinderella at the Theatre Royal, Norwich from 17 December 2013 to 19 January 2014.^[3]

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

• A Flea in Her Ear (Thorndike Theatre)
• Cinderella as Baron Hardup (Theatre Royal, Norwich)
• Waiting for Godot as Lucky (Queen's Theatre)
• Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense as Seppings(Theatre Royal, Nottingham)

Soundtrack

References

External links

• Christopher Ryan at the Internet Movie Database
• Christopher Ryan at BFI Film & TV Database