Christopher Ryan

For other people named Christopher Ryan, see Christopher Ryan (disambiguation).

Christopher Ryan
Born	Christopher Papazoglou (1950-01-25) 25 January 1950 Bayswater, London, England
Nationality	English
Other names	Chris Ryan
Alma mater	East 15 Acting School
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1971–present

Christopher Ryan (born Christopher Papazoglou; 25 January 1950) is an English actor best known for his roles as Mike in the BBC comedy series The Young Ones, Dave Hedgehog in the BBC comedy series Bottom, Tony Driscoll in the BBC comedy series Only Fools and Horses, and as Edina Monsoon's ex-husband Marshall Turtle in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.

Early life

Ryan was born Christopher Papazoglou in Bayswater, London to an English mother and a Greek father. He trained at East 15 Acting School from 1968 to 1971, then began his professional acting career with Glasgow Citizens' Theatre in 1971.

Career

The Young Ones

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 1986, Ryan reunited with the rest of the cast in the comedic music video for Cliff Richard's hit song "Living Doll", with Richard himself.

Later career

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. 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, My Family and 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", 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 film Dirty Weekend (1993), 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.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Santa Claus: The Movie	Vout
1993	Dirty Weekend	Small One
1996	Bottom Fluff	Dave Hedgehog	Direct-to-video
1997	Absolutely Fabulous: Absolutely Not!	Marshall
2009	Dead Man Running	Bookie at the Dogs	Uncredited
2012	City Slacker	Frank
2016	Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie	Marshall
2019	Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor	Kiv	Direct-to-video

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	Target	Jock	Episode: "A Good and Faithful Woman"
1979	Angels	Harry	Episodes 5.13 & 5.15
	Premiere	Clive	Episode: "Deasey"
1980	Fox	East	Episode: "Stick or Twist"
1981	BBC2 Playhouse	Tony	Episode: "Days at the Beach"
	Play for Today	Hound Dog	Episode: "A Turn for the Worse"
	The Olympian Way	Mickey Farr	Episode: "Slim Chance"
1982–1984	The Young Ones	Mike
1984	The Tempest, Act IV	Ferdinand	TV movie
1985	Inside Out	Tommy	Episodes 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3
	Summer Season	Twerp	Episode: "Rachel and the Roarettes"
	The Lenny Henry Show	N/A	Episode 2.2
	Happy Families	Mell	Episode: "Cassie"
1986	Doctor Who	Kiv	Episode: "Mindwarp"
1987	A Small Problem	Howard
1989	Only Fools and Horses	Tony Driscoll	Episode: "Little Problems"
	The Russ Abbot Show	N/A	Episode 4.12
1990, 1995	One Foot in the Grave	Plumber McKendrick Twins	Episodes: "The Valley of Fear" "Hole in the Sky"
1991–1995	Bottom	Dave Hedgehog	Episodes: "Accident" "Parade" "Holy" "Terror" "Dough"
1992	The New Statesman	Ioannis Douvalopoulos	Episode: "Speaking in Tongues"
1992–2012	Absolutely Fabulous	Marshall	Credited as Chris Ryan
1993	Maigret	Basie	Episode: "Maigret and the Maid"
	Newman and Baddiel in Pieces	N/A	Episode: "Guilty"
1994	Requiem Apache	Club Barman	TV movie Credited as Chris Ryan
	Mr. Bean	Karate Student	Episode: "Back to School Mr. Bean" Credited as Chris Ryan
1995	Health and Efficiency	Peter Hudson	Episode: "The Old Dope Peddler"
1997	Melissa	Les Maurice	TV mini-series
1998	Mike and Angelo	Brad Schnauzer	Episode: "Out of the Wardrobe"
1999	Alice in Wonderland	Royal Gardener 3	TV movie Credited as Chris Ryan
2001, 2003	My Family	Mr. Hilliard Rod Baxter	Episodes: "Parisian Beauty" "Canary Cage"
2005–2006, 2009	The Green Green Grass	Tony Driscoll	Episodes: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo Clock" "Brothers and Sisters" "Home Brew"
2006	SpongeBob SquarePants	Professor Percy	Voice role Episode: "Chimps Ahoy" Uncredited
2007	Saxondale	Ticket Inspector	Episode 2.5
2007	The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle	Miriam	Episodes 1.2 & 1.6
2008, 2010	Doctor Who	General Staal Commander Stark	Episodes: "The Sontaran Stratagem" "The Poison Sky" "The Pandorica Opens"
2013	It's Kevin	The Great Spagboletti	Episode #1.4

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2011	Black Mirror III	Additional Voices

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

Year	Title	Song	Artist/Writer
1992	Absolutely Fabulous	"Happy Birthday"	Mildred J. Hill & Patty S. Hill
1995	One Foot in the Grave	"Let's Face The Music And Dance"	Irving Berlin

External links

• Christopher Ryan at IMDb 
• Template:BFI