Christopher Ryan - from Young Ones to Ab Fab

May 30 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

HE’S been a Young One, shown his Bottom and been Absolutely Fabulous in a career that has spanned many of British comedy’s greats.

Actor Christopher Ryan is best known for his roles as cocky Mike in the former, Dave Hedgehog in his co-stars’ equally nonsensical follow-up, and put-upon husband Marshall in the latter.

He has worked solidly in theatre with an impressive television CV that has seen him star in some of the most timeless comedies ever made.

And he returns to Liverpool – where he performed a season at the Everyman nearly 30 years ago, shortly before stepping in at the last minute to complete the cast of the Young Ones – next week.

Ryan appears in London Assurance at the Playhouse, from June 3 to 7.

In the play, written in 1841 by Dion Boucicault, Ryan plays Adolfus Spanker, husband of Lady Gay Spanker, played by Geraldine McNulty.

“It’s a period piece, a comedy of manners, love, mistaken identity . . . the games people play with each other. It would be a shame to say too much about it but it is fun and people should enjoy it,” he explains.

“It’s not a well-known piece by a well-known writer, but people shouldn’t be put off.”

The actor says he hopes to revisit a few old haunts during the short run.

He performed in three Everyman plays in the autumn season of 1979-1980, including its Christmas show Yellow Dwarf and Cloud Nine, and lived near Sefton Park.

He became involved in the touring production of London Assurance after being asked to personally take the part.

“I read the script again and again, and read a biography of Boucicault, and that’s when I thought what an extraordinary life this man had.

“It’s nice to be asked to do something – when someone you don’t know sends you a script and says ‘would you like to play this part’ . . . it doesn’t happen a lot and it is very flattering.”

Recent television roles include two episodes as an alien in Dr Who and guest spots in The Green Green Grass – following on from a one-episode appearance on Only Fools and Horses, back in 1989.

But it is on stage where he says he belongs.

“There’s this different energy with theatre, I feel more comfortable and more at home,” he says.

“It’s that immediate response to a story being told from start to finish, not like film or TV where you do episode six before you’ve done episode one.

“If something goes wrong, you have to get yourself out of it, and if something doesn’t go to plan, you get another chance the next night.

“You’ve got to reach the audience with your voice, your body and your energy – it’s like live music, to me, it’s better than recorded stuff. It’s an immediate shared experience.”

Nearly three decades after The Young Ones, the surreal adventures of a house of dysfunctional students that ran for two series and 12 episodes in the early 1980s, most involved have become comedy royalty.

Ryan was not the original choice for the part of Mike, who was to be played by another of the Comic Strip sketch actors alongside Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Alexei Sayle.

Despite having a genuine, and lasting, camaraderie with his castmates, Ryan admits he never felt he truly quite belonged.

“They all knew each other and I wasn’t part of that, so I still feel somewhat not part of it.

“Through the years, I’ve been asked to talk on various programmes about the 80s, the Young Ones and alternative comedy and I’ve always said no, not out of pique, but I wasn’t a comedian and felt I don’t have the right to speak on that. I still don’t really talk about it.

“I just played Mike on the Young Ones and that was my only contribution.”

He has worked with the core cast members many times since, on stage as well as television, and is a regular face in many Jennifer Saunders projects (she is married to Edmondson).

“All those other things came from it – Bottom, Absolutely Fabulous, The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle, it’s funny how things link and are connected.”

“I just knew The Young Ones was something different, I knew it was funny, but I didn’t know until the completion of the second series how much it had taken off.

“You can feel when something is good and exciting, but you can’t really say it’s going to become something special.

“But people still respond to it favourably, and it’s the same with Bottom and Absolutely Fabulous.

“I watched the show when it was first shown, but haven’t since. People will quote me lines and scenes, and I’ll say ‘really, is that what we said?’”

LONDON Assurance is at the Liverpool Playhouse from June 2 to June 7.