Christopher Ryan

Acting

Christopher Ryan

Born

1950-01-25 (76)

Place of birth

London, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

52 titles

Christopher Ryan (né Papazoglou; 25 January 1950) is a British actor best known for his roles as Mike TheCoolPerson 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. He has also appeared as the McKendrick twins in One Foot in the Grave, and played Sontaran General Staal in Doctor Who in 2008.

Known for

Doctor Who poster
7.6

The Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living—more of a hobby actually, and the Doctor's very, very good at it.

Doctor Who

2005

Doctor Who poster
7.9

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Doctor Who

1963

Play for Today poster
6.6

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

Play for Today

1970

Playhouse poster
7.0

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

Playhouse

1974

Absolutely Fabulous poster
7.6

Set in the world of fashion and PR, immature fun-loving mother Edina Monsoon and her best friend Patsy drive Eddie's sensible daughter, Saffron, up the wall with their constant drug abuse and outrageous selfishness. Numerous in-jokes and heavy doses of cruel humour have made this series a cult hit in the UK and abroad.

Absolutely Fabulous

1992

Mr. Bean poster
8.0

Mr Bean turns simple everyday tasks into chaotic situations and will leave you in stitches as he creates havoc wherever he goes.

Mr. Bean

1990

Film credits

2010s · 7 titles

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie poster
5.3

Edina and Patsy are still oozing glitz and glamour, living the high life they're accustomed to; shopping, drinking and clubbing around London's trendiest hotspots. Blamed for a major incident at an uber fashionable launch party, they become entangled in a media storm and are relentlessly pursued by the paparazzi. Fleeing penniless to the glamorous playground of the super-rich, the French Riviera, they hatch a plan to make their escape permanent and live the high life forever more!

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

2016

Backyard Wilderness poster
6.7

The wonders of nature are viewed from the backyards of communities across the nation.

Backyard Wilderness

2018

City Slacker poster
6.0

Amanda is a corporate highflier who needs a slacker so she can have a baby and keep her career.

City Slacker

2012

The Inquisition poster
NR

The Wood Royal Commission unleashed an extraordinary investigation that swept through the NSW Police Force like a tsunami. For many, the stakes were life or death. Not everyone survived.

The Inquisition

2010

How The Young Ones Changed Comedy poster
7.0

This documentary explores the legacy of one of the most notorious British sitcoms of all time. Launching alternative comedy onto our screens, the show made household names of its performers and writers and proved to be a huge influence, despite the BBC reportedly being baffled by what they'd commissioned back in 1982. Never before had a flagship comedy show contained so much violence, depravity and anarchy - it was a shot across the bow to mainstream comedians that things would never be the same again.

How The Young Ones Changed Comedy

2018

Rik Mayall: Lord of Misrule poster
7.5

Comedian Rik Mayall died suddenly on 9 June 2014. Mayall's blend of rocket-fuelled physical comedy, surrealism, subversive satire and pompous punk wit left a body of work that spanned four decades. Mayall's characters include the Black Country's investigative nerd Kevin Turvey, Felicity Kendal-adoring student and 'People's Poet' Rik in The Young Ones, ruthless MP Alan B'Stard in The New Statesman, seedy loser Richie in Bottom and larger-than-life characters Robin Hood and flying ace Lord Flashheart from Blackadder. Narrated by Simon Callow, this programme salutes Rik Mayall and celebrates his part in the UK's comedy history using rare and unseen archive footage. It also features contributions from people who knew or admired him, including Michael Palin, Simon Pegg, Lenny Henry, Ben Elton, Alexei Sayle, Christopher Ryan, Tim McInnerny, Jools Holland, Ruby Wax and Greg Davies.

Rik Mayall: Lord of Misrule

2014

Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor poster
5.5

An original drama from the world of BBCtv's Doctor Who, featuring Sil, the ruthless alien entrepreneur from planet Thoros Beta, played by Nabil Shaban. Sil is worried, very worried, which doesn't keep his reptilian skin in the best condition! Confined in a cold detention cell on the moon, awaiting a deportation hearing for trial on drugs offences on Earth, he faces a death sentence if the application is successful and he is found guilty. And his employers at the Universal Monetary Fund aren t pleased either. Not at all. As time runs out and friends desert him, Sil must use all of his devious, vile, underhanded, ruthless, and amoral business acumen to survive. Can he possibly slime his way out of this one?

Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor

2019

2000s · 2 titles

1990s · 6 titles

Alice in Wonderland poster
6.2

Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit-hole into a whimsical Wonderland, where she meets characters like the delightful Cheshire Cat, the clumsy White Knight, a rude caterpillar, and the hot-tempered Queen of Hearts and can grow ten feet tall or shrink to three inches. But will she ever be able to return home?

Alice in Wonderland

1999

French and Saunders' Christmas Carol poster
NR

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders reprise some of their favourite characters for a yuletide airing, while Charles Dickens and the Oscar-winning film The Piano feel the lash of their satirical humour.

French and Saunders' Christmas Carol

1994

Absolutely Fabulous: The Last Shout poster
7.3

Eddy and Patsy prepare to go on a skiing holiday to hopefully indulge in the jet-setting lifestyle of the international celebrity elite when Saffy is proposed to by her stuffy, upper-class boyfriend, Paolo. Eddy hits the slopes and has a near death experience where God appears to her and tells her it's not yet her time. When Eddy comes to, she waits for a sign that she should get involved in Saffy's wedding. As she returns to the house, it appears all hell has broken loose- relatives piling up, practically squatting, and Saffy about to lose her mind. Eddy calms her by throwing money at her as they bond together, planning Saffy's dream wedding. What could go wrong?

Absolutely Fabulous: The Last Shout

1996

Holy - Bottom: Christmas Special poster
NR

It's Christmas day and Richie is cooking the dinner to which Dave Hedgehog and Spudgun are invited. Dinner is not up to Michelin standard, but Richie's day improves when he finds out he is the son of God.

Holy - Bottom: Christmas Special

1992

Requiem Apache poster
7.5

Alan Bleasdale's comic crime caper for Channel 4 about a former getaway driver desperate to leave his life of crime behind. Featuring Alfred Molina, David Ross, Amanda Mealing, Andrew Schofield and Julie Walters. Raymond Murtagh's Requim Apache tells the story of Hamish, who was once one of the criminal underworld's best getaway drivers. Now a new father and retired to the Suffolk countryside, he has to watch the baby at home alone. However, Hamish's peaceful and idyllic new life is shattered when his past rears its ugly head once again, and the old gang comes over for a visit. They make him an offer he dare not refuse to take on one last bank job. However, with no babysitter available, he is forced to take the baby with him.

Requiem Apache

1994

Dirty Weekend poster
5.0

Shortly after she moves into her own flat in Brighton, Bella finds she is being spied on and generally harassed by a man living across from her. Finally driven to solving the problem with a hammer, she realises she is then ready for a crusade against other such problem males

Dirty Weekend

1993

1980s · 7 titles

Santa Claus: The Movie poster
6.3

In ancient times, a man named Claus, who delivers toys in his small village, fulfils his destiny to become Santa Claus after meeting an expert toy-making elf, Patch, in the North Pole. In the present day, Santa Claus has become overwhelmed by his workload, and the disgruntled Patch flees the workshop to New York City. There, Patch unknowingly threatens the fate of Christmas by taking a job at a failing toy company run by a scheming businessman.

Santa Claus: The Movie

1985

No artwork available
1.0

The thirteen-part series recounted the lives of the titular Fox family, who lived in Clapham in South London and had gangland connections.

Fox

1980

Up Line poster
NR

Three alternative comedians get involved in a pyramid-selling organization, Pathway, in order to finance their act. They gain great success by deploying their skills as entertainers, only to eventually discover the sinister purpose behind the Pathway organization.

Up Line

1987

Doctor Who: Mindwarp poster
7.7

As the Doctor's trial continues, evidence is presented showing his most recent adventure, one where he faces an old adversary, Sil. As a scientist conducts his unethical experiments to prolong the life of Sil's boss Kiv, the Doctor's memories of the events begins to return and an unpleasant surprise awaits him.

Doctor Who: Mindwarp

1986

A Turn for the Worse poster
NR

Simon Simpson runs an entertainment agency in Liverpool. At one of his regular auditions in The Bootle Railway Club he sees an aggressive young man fresh from the dole queue who dreams of becoming a professional comedian. Simpson believes the boy has talent and starts to groom him for 'stardom'.

A Turn for the Worse

1981

Rachel and the Roarettes poster
NR

A musical about female rebels in the 18th and 20th centuries.

Rachel and the Roarettes

1985

Days at the Beach poster
NR

In 1920 a trio of British soldiers have to guard an exploded mine washes up on a beach. Part of the BBC2 Playhouse strand.

Days at the Beach

1981

Series credits

Doctor Who poster
7.6

The Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living—more of a hobby actually, and the Doctor's very, very good at it.

Doctor Who

2005

Doctor Who poster
7.9

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Doctor Who

1963

Play for Today poster
6.6

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

Play for Today

1970

Playhouse poster
7.0

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

Playhouse

1974

Absolutely Fabulous poster
7.6

Set in the world of fashion and PR, immature fun-loving mother Edina Monsoon and her best friend Patsy drive Eddie's sensible daughter, Saffron, up the wall with their constant drug abuse and outrageous selfishness. Numerous in-jokes and heavy doses of cruel humour have made this series a cult hit in the UK and abroad.

Absolutely Fabulous

1992

Mr. Bean poster
8.0

Mr Bean turns simple everyday tasks into chaotic situations and will leave you in stitches as he creates havoc wherever he goes.

Mr. Bean

1990

Only Fools and Horses poster
8.1

Only Fools and Horses.... Is a British sitcom created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally transmitted on BBC One from 1981 to 1991, with sixteen sporadic Christmas specials aired until 2003. In working-class Peckham in south-east London, ambitious market trader Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter and his younger half-brother Rodney, explore their highs and lows in life, in particular their attempts to get rich. Initially not an immediate hit and receiving little promotion early on, it later achieved consistently high ratings, and the 1996 episode "Time on Our Hands" (originally billed as the series finale) holds the record for the biggest UK audience for a sitcom episode, attracting 24.3 million viewers. The series bears a significant influence on British culture, contributing several words and phrases to the English language.

Only Fools and Horses

1981

Angels poster
4.5

Angels is a BBC medical soap-opera which launched on 1st September 1975 and was the blue print for such medical soaps as Casualty, Holby City, plus daytime soap, Doctors. The medical soap focuses on different departments within Heath Green Hospital and was a highly successful continuing drama.

Angels

1975

The Young Ones poster
7.9

The misadventures of four lunatic students who live in a shared student house. There's Rick, the overblown political one addicted to Cliff Richard, Vyvyan the experimental scientific one/part-time anarchist, Neil the worried hippy, and Mike the ladies' man (at least he is in his mind).

The Young Ones

1982

Bottom poster
7.9

Richie Richard (socially awkward, sexually inexperienced) and Eddie Hitler (carefree alcoholic ) are two social outcasts living on the dole. Trapped together in a squalid flat in Hammersmith, London they are perpetually skint, bored and sexually frustrated. They spend their days scheming, bickering, and being nasty and sadistic to each other.

Bottom

1991

Target poster
7.0

A crime drama set in Southampton following a team of detectives and the cases they solve.

Target

1977

The New Statesman poster
7.5

The New Statesman is a British sitcom of the late 1980s and early 1990s satirising the Conservative government of the time.

The New Statesman

1987

No artwork available
7.0

A series of anthologies highlighting the initial projects of directors venturing into television drama filmmaking.

Premiere

1977

Maigret poster
7.6

Based on the novels by Georges Simenon, Michael Gambon plays the eponymous detective from the Sûreté in this 1992 revival of the 1960s BBC drama series. Maigret is an intuitutive detective, who investigates his cases by watching and listening, getting to know everyone on his list of suspects until someone makes a slip or breaks down and confesses.

Maigret

1992

One Foot in the Grave poster
7.7

One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series. The series features the exploits of Victor Meldrew and his long-suffering wife, Margaret. The programmes invariably deal with Meldrew's battle against the problems he creates for himself. Living in a typical household in an unnamed English suburb, Victor takes involuntary early retirement. His various efforts to keep himself busy, while encountering various misfortunes and misunderstandings are the themes of the sitcom. Despite its traditional production, the series supplants its domestic sitcom setting with elements of black humour and surrealism.

One Foot in the Grave

1990

Jack of All Trades poster
7.5

American spy Jack Stiles teams with British agent Emilia Rothschild to thwart Napoleon's advances in the East Indies.

Jack of All Trades

2000

Saxondale poster
7.5

Steve Coogan plays Tommy Saxondale: an ex-roadie with anger management issues and a pest-control business. Tommy is a little arrogant, a little egotistical and feels the world owes him more respect than it typically shows him. He has an assistant named Raymond who lives in a spare room in Tommy's house, a live-in girlfriend named Magz who owns a T-shirt business, and a receptionist named Vicky who has a tendency to drive him up the wall.

Saxondale

2006

No artwork available
NR

This anthology of 55-minute plays aired on Thursday nights on BBC2.

Summer Season

1985

The Green Green Grass poster
6.9

Sitcom spin-off from Only Fools and Horses, featuring the characters of Boycie and Marlene adapting to life in rural Shropshire. Starring John Challis and Sue Holderness

The Green Green Grass

2005

Melissa poster
6.8

Acclaimed war journalist Guy Foster finds himself in the company of odd and sinister people after getting engaged to the mysterious Melissa McKensie. Soon, he'll become a suspect in a series of grisly murders and will have to solve them to clear his name.

Melissa

1997

It's Kevin poster
7.2

It's Kevin is a British television comedy show, created by and starring the actor and comedian Kevin Eldon. It was screened on BBC Two between March and April 2013.

It's Kevin

2013

Happy Families poster
7.2

Happy Families was a rural comedy drama written by Ben Elton which appeared on the BBC in 1985 and told the story of the dysfunctional Fuddle family. It starred Jennifer Saunders as Granny Fuddle, Dawn French as the Cook and Adrian Edmondson as her imbecilic grandson Guy. The plot centred around Guy's attempts to find his four sisters - also played by Saunders, for a family reunion.

Happy Families

1985

Health and Efficiency poster
8.0

Health and Efficiency is a British situation comedy that was originally broadcast from 30 December 1993 to 10 February 1995 on BBC1 for a total of 12 episodes over 2 series. It was written by Andrew Marshall, writer of the sitcom 2point4 children. The show starred Gary Olsen and Roger Lloyd Pack who both starred in 2point4 children, as well as Victor McGuire and Deborah Norton. The setting was a hospital and each episode was 30 minutes in length.

Health and Efficiency

1993

The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle poster
6.2

Revolving around the life of Vivienne Vyle, a daytime TV presenter/agony aunt in the mold of Trisha, the show focuses on not only the problems of her guests but the problems Vivienne faces herself in regards to her love and home life.

The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle

2007

No artwork available
NR

Two female ex-convicts try to set up an employment agency.

Inside Out

1985

No artwork available
9.0

Three alternative comedians get involved in a pyramid-selling organization, Pathway, in order to finance their act. They gain great success by deploying their skills as entertainers, only to eventually discover the sinister purpose behind the Pathway organization.

Up Line

1987

A Small Problem poster
5.0

A Small Problem is a British sitcom originally broadcast on BBC2 in 1987. Intended as a satire on prejudice, the show was set in a Britain starring Christopher Ryan who had previously played Mike in The Young Ones, with a form of apartheid based on people's height. Anyone below 5ft tall was forced to live in tower-block ghettos south of the River Thames. However, many viewers appeared not to understand the satirical aspect of the show, and the BBC was flooded with complaints. It was written by comedy writers Tony Millan and Mike Walling. The theme tune was written by Mo Foster and Mike Walling.

A Small Problem

1987