Ryan and Ronnie (1971–1973) User Reviews

Hilarious family entertainment

[ignazia · 8/10 · 19 March 2007]

I grew up in an English market town on the border of Wales so our (black & white, manually tuned) TV was able to receive some of the Welsh channels. I remember watching this program in the Welsh language and, while not understanding the actual words, enjoyed the obvious physical humour. The soap parody "Our House" was hilarious and at some point I must have seen it in English because I remember some of the catch phrases. Mother (played by Ryan) would cut doorsteps of bread while holding the loaf clutched perpendicular to her ample "bosom" and the Daughter would complain when the Son pinched her bra to use as a Viking helmet.

The humour would feel very dated now but I have fond memories of a very funny family-oriented show.

Great memories

[beresfordjd · 9/10 · 18 February 2014]

We used to watch this way back in the early seventies and absolutely loved it! The catchphrases are still in our memories and the characters Nigel Wyn and Phyllis Doris are etched into our brains. I used to love it when the sketch ended with "I don't know what to say!" delivered in a beautiful Welsh accent. I had not realised that there had been as many as 3 series but I just hope a DVD is brought out sometime to celebrate a surreal and off the wall comedy series. There is not even been any you tube videos to look at and enjoy all over again. I believe that the series was originally in the Welsh language so I imagined that someone somewhere has an archive of these fabulous series. I have never seen Ryan or Ronnie since the seventies and I imagine it is possible that they are no longer with us.

They Were More Than Just The Welsh Morecambe & Wise

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 29 June 2006]

In the early '70's, it looked as though Welsh comedians Ryan Davies and Ronnie Williams were poised to breakthrough into the British comedy mainstream. Bill Cotton, the then-Head Of Light Entertainment at the B.B.C. attended a recording of one of their shows and, despite not really understanding it ( it was in Welsh ) was sufficiently impressed by the audience's reaction to the duo put them on B.B.C.-1.

'Ryan & Ronnie' was a lively, amusing show, combining sketches in which they took off top television shows of the day such as 'Steptoe & Son', 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In', even 'The Magic Roundabout', musical items, Eric & Ernie-style cross-talk, and the soap opera parody 'Our House' which was good enough to have warranted a spin-off.

It would have been unsurprising if they had failed to appeal to audiences beyond the valleys, but they didn't and 'Ryan & Ronnie' ran for three seasons. Sadly, their triumph was to be short-lived; Ryan died of asthma in 1977, robbing us of a wonderful double-act whose potential went largely unrealised.