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Ryan Davies

RYAN FAQs

A selection of your frequently asked questions :-

There was a rumour that Ryan was short-listed for the part of Compo on ‘Last of the Summer Wine'. Was that true?

This has appeared on Wikipedia and the simple answer to that question is that it was not true. I'm not entirely sure where that rumour derived from but the nearest connection was the professional relationship that Ryan had with Bill Owen.

In late Autumn 1976, Ryan was invited to take one of the two lead roles in the play ‘The Sunshine Boys' at the New Theatre in Cardiff. The other was to be played by Bill Owen.

The play had been turned into an Oscar-winning film and it revolved around two retired comedians who had enjoyed a very successful career as a Double Act - but the reality was that they hated each other & hadn't spoken in years! It charted the endeavours of a son-in-law Agent who attempts to get them reunited for one last time - ‘attempt' being the operative word.

The ‘run' at the New was a successful one, both artists creating a double draw - the only unfamiliar part was that they both played the roles in an American accent! Although Bill Owen had starred in the first series of ‘Last of the Summer Wine', it still would be a few years before the series a regular feature for Sunday night viewing. But it should not be forgotten that Bill Owen was a huge Matinee Idol in many films in the 1940's & 50's. Ryan's own career was also reaching its peak - it was only a couple of years previously that the partnership of Ryan & Ronnie had broken up due to Ronnie's ill-health. The play's theme had an ironic feel in view of R. & R.'s breakup (see question below).

The great personal memory for me of the play was of a dinner-party! Ryan, Bill Owen and myself had been invited to dinner at the home of Wyn Calvin. Wyn, that great Welsh personality, had always made a great welcome at his home to any other visiting artists - and this was extended to ‘The Sunshine Boys'. Over the years, I've always had a great fascination with Music Hall, Comedy and the like. For three hours, I was ‘entertained' with wonderful theatrical stories (from Theatrical Landladies to rundown Theatrical digs, from Chorus Line to Top Star stories!) by Bill, Wyn & Ryan. I don't believe I have ever laughed so continuously as I did that evening.

Happy Memories!

In the recent stage presentation of the play "Ryan & Ronnie", the pair were represented as having a volatile relationship which led to their split. Is this true ?

As someone who worked alongside both of them during the final months of their partnership, it did disappoint me in how the two were represented in that play. Of course, in any relationship you will have your ‘ups & downs', but with the strains that were placed on them they managed to maintain a very civilised & healthy partnership.

What they had created in an extremely short space of time (for comedy duos, that is) was a hugely successful comedy vehicle and one they could take great pride in. (We'll deal with the successes of Ryan & Ronnie in a separate article).

As usual with any docu-drama, the term ‘artistic licence' is applied & the idea is to seek the ‘darker side' of their relationship - interestingly, attempted when they are not around to defend themselves! Call me old-fashioned, but I have always looked on the entertainment business as a form of escapism to take your mind off your daily toil. I enjoy the artiste for what they attempt to achieve on stage / TV / Film. What lurks behind that façade is of little interest to me & should be kept out of the equation. As it happens, if you equate the pleasure that Ryan & Ronnie achieved against whatever character deficiencies they had, then the ratio is somewhere around 95% to 5%. So rather than dredging through the 5% let's just enjoy the happy memories of what they achieved on stage.

On Ronnie's own admission, he was Ryan's biggest fan and the role of ‘straight man' to the comic partner is a difficult but a very important role (imagine a Morecambe without a Wise). Ronnie was unable to keep up with the rigours of nightly performing and it came as a big shock to Ryan when Ronnie announced at the Double Diamond Club in Caerphilly (a 2,500 seater cabaret venue) that he had been ordered by a specialist to stop immediately. If the double act was to finish then the D.D. was a fitting exit. Ronnie always kept his connections with the entertainment business but the illness was never far away. As a result, he was a much misunderstood person but his contribution to the R & R vehicle was immense.

His last major public performance was in ‘TWIN TOWNS' in 1997 & he sadly took his own life later that year.

If you have any questions on Ryan, please send them to Mike Evans - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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Over the last twenty five years, I have had the privilege of working with countless choirs across the length and breadth of the UK. From the small village choir to the 1000 voices at the Royal Albert Hall in London, I have enjoyed their hospitality and companionship. I don’t need to tell members of existing choirs how infectious this camaraderie can be, and that goes someway to explaining why a typical chorister gives up, normally two evenings a week for rehearsal and maybe a third for a concert. Divorces come about for less!

From the individual chorister, multiplied by the number in the Choir, times the number of choirs in that country, further extended by the number of countries across the world with choirs – and that is some equation. Yet, when you then glance at the countless websites of choirs across the world, they paint a picture of the choir but from a chorister perspective, there is another story to be told. And that reflects the basis of BlackMountain.me.uk –to focus more on the participating role of the chorister. Also there are many exemplary sites which are there to examine the finer points of the art form, others which reflect the representative bodies – but what of the chorister?

To many, choral singing is a complete way of life and a fun hobby to have. We hope that we can reflect that with stories, articles and correspondence from across the world. There is a huge, worldwide community of choirs and it will be fascinating to reflect it. We don’t have to recruit special correspondents, each chorister will have their story or view and now it can be heard. As you come across the various categories, we will suggest ways that you can contribute.

As these are then edited and included in this site, you will be able to regularly check the periodical as it will be constantly upgraded.

You will be able to take from BlackMountain.me.uk what you’ve put in and give the role of the chorister a higher profile.

"The Many Faces of Ryan" - a CD Review by Nigel Stapley

In the thirty years since his passing, the abiding memory of those who were fortunate enough to see and hear Ryan Davies perform is that of laughter.

In "The Many Faces Of Ryan", we can hear him at his peak and in his natural element - in front of a live audience. Some of the jokes and stories are familiar - and some of them were old friends even then - but his engaging energy, his impeccable timing and his strong sense of character make them live. Few could hold an audience - be it at a cabaret club or a private function - better. If any of the material itself sounds dated, perhaps that is because it comes from an earthier yet less cynical age, from a time when the central idea of comedy was to amuse rather than to shock. It really was "the way he told them".

And then, of course, there was Phyllis: completely up-front, brassy and delightfully bawdy, with mis-coinages that would make Mrs Malaprop go into immediate retirement. Here we have the pleasure of her company for over twenty minutes of a rescued and restored live recording in which she recounts her career move from barmaid to traffic warden, with a trip to London thrown in for good measure.

What Ryan Davies understood was that you had to create characters with which the audience could identify. Every Welsh village had its Phyllis (I know mine did) and, for all the cabaret sophistication, the humour was essentially that of the 'gwerinwr' - the common man (and his wife, of course!). Throwing in little local references was yet another way of drawing people in to the humour of recognition, and you can hear him do that to good effect in these excerpts.

By comparison with the legendary "Ryan At The Rank" (which dates from the same period), the style and tone of these once-lost performances is somewhat more down-to-earth - nearer the Terylene shirt than the tuxedo - no doubt because Ryan knew how to tailor his material to the audience he was playing, and performing for a private function may have been a chance for him to let his hair down a little. But it is never coarse: apart from his obvious talents and professionalism, the attractiveness of Ryan's performances - in whatever medium - stems from something which can't be faked: integrity. Along with his natural warmth, these are the characteristics which endeared him to the public of his time, and which continue to inspire the affection of so many, even after all these years.

In a montage of items from the much-missed "Poems And Pints" television series, we witness more of Ryan's strengths in depth as he switches nimbly between characters and accents in a variety of short pieces by such luminaries of the Welsh cultural scene as John Tripp and Harri Webb. The CD also includes a couple of snippets from interviews where Ryan speaks of how important comedy was to him and (most crucially of all, of course) how he 'discovered' the fearsome Phyllis!

But this man was far more than a comedian (or, as I prefer to think of him, a comedy actor). We also get to hear his rendition of Michel Legrand's "Summer Of '42" at one end of the spectrum (a performance of wistful poignancy totally in tune with the song's subject matter) and - diametrically opposed in all respects bar its musicality - his reworking of "Happy Birthday To You" in the style of various composers; a routine which owed much to Victor Borge, and which other musician/comedians such as Joe Griffiths have used since.

Topping and tailing this release are the joyous "Blodwen & Mary" (sung with his long-time partner Ronnie Williams) and Nigel Hopkins' beautiful arrangement of "Ti A Dy Ddoniau", in order to remind us that - in addition to everything else - Ryan Davies was a talented songwriter in the 'evergreen' style.

The term 'irreplaceable' is overused, but the sad fact is that in the thirty years since his death, no-one has been able even to fill the gap he left, let alone take forward and develop the idea of entertainment of a high professional standard, based on a deep grounding in our own culture, yet adding the best of the Anglo-American world to it. In that sense too, Ryan Davies was a 'one-off', and this CD gives us a full hour and a quarter of the best of entertainment from a man whose spectrum of talents graced our lives like a rainbow, and whose many faces and voices brought laughter and entertainment to our land.

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In the 1970s, Amman Valley-born Ryan Davies became one of Wales's best known TV actors and personalities before his untimely death in America in 1977 at only forty years of age.

His appearances on both Welsh and English language TV, usually with his double-act partner Ronnie Williams from the nearby Gwendraeth Valley, ensured the memory of him lived on long after his death. He was one half of Wales's best-loved comedy double-act and the news of his premature death at forty came as a terrible shock to his many fans across the UK. On Friday, April 22, 1977, it was reported that Ryan Davies had died of heart failure after suffering an asthma attack while on holiday in the USA.

The entertainer was visiting friends in Buffalo, New York, when he fell ill, and was taken to Buffalo Mercy Hospital where he could not be revived. He left a wife, Irene, and two children - Bethan, 12, and 10-year-old Arwyn.

Ryan Davies was born in Glanamman, Carmarthenshire, in 1937 and was educated at Llangadog and Llanfyllin. After two years national service in the RAF he went to Bangor Normal College, moving on to London's Central School of Speech and Drama. He started work as a primary school teacher in Croydon in 1960, but five years later was lured into full-time showbusiness by BBC Wales.

A talented actor, comic and musician Davies quickly established himself as one of the most versatile performers in Wales. In 1967 he teamed up with Cefneithin-born Ronnie Williams, as well as Gillian Thomas and Johnny Tudor, for the Ryan and Ronnie and Jill and Johnny shows before going on to form a duo with Ronnie Williams.

In May 1971 Ryan and Ronnie got their big break from BBC's head of light entertainment, Billy Cotton, Jnr. After visiting Cardiff to watch their Welsh show, Cotton offered them a three-year contract to make an English-language show for the BBC network. As their sketch show ran on BBC1 for three seasons until 1973 the duo became household names, the Welsh Eric and Ernie.

Among their best-loved material was the weekly "soap" sketch, Our House, in which Ryan in drag as the archetypal Welsh mam and Ronnie in short trousers as Nigel Wyn, lampooned life in a terraced Valleys house.

But in May 1974 their seven-year partnership was brought to an end when Williams succumbed to nervous exhaustion and was advised by his doctor to give up work immediately. "It's a terrible blow," said Davies, eager to dispel any rumours of a rift.

But solo work held no fears for him. In 1971 he had already spread his wings by appearing alongside Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O'Toole in the film version of Dylan Thomas's play for voices, Under Milk Wood.

He continued his remarkably successful annual stint in pantomime at Swansea and starred in TV programmes such as Ryan, the classic Welsh language sitcom Fo a Fe, and Poems and Pints. But in December 1975 Davies himself was ordered to rest by doctors, following an asthma attack. Yet despite this, for the last two years of his life, his workload was relentless.

On hearing of his former partner's death, Ronnie Williams said, "In Ryan's case he's given and given and given. He was a man of tremendous energy. He gave to Wales until he had no more to give, completely unselfishly and at the expense of his wife and family. One couldn't have known him all those years without loving and admiring him. We have always been mates. Wales is going to miss him terribly. I am going to miss him more." [Rhodri Owen, The Western Mail, Apr 17 2002.]

The following item, from a Welsh television series called called Talking Stones, was broadcast in July 2003.

Talking Stones takes the viewer on a tour of the graveyards of Wales to investigate the stories of some of the people who are buried there. As narrated by leather-clad biker and Anglican priest Lionel Fanthorpe, the graveyards, tombs and epitaphs tell their various stories, with Ryan Davies being one of those who come under scrutiny:

Here at Hên Bethel chapel graveyard, above Glanamman in the Black Mountains. You don't get many laughs in a graveyard, but I'm by the last resting place of a man who could make an audience smile just by appearing. Ryan Davies was the Welsh entertainment scene in the 1970s. If his life had not been tragically cut short, we'd still be applauding him now.
He was born at Mountain View, Glanamman in 1937, and was a teacher for a while. He began his show biz career by doing a turn next door. Ryan performed in some of the biggest theatres in the country, but his first stage performance was here, in the Angel Inn.
When his aunt and grandmother went to the prayer meeting, young Ryan went to the pub and performed for pennies. It was good training for many an eisteddfod. Welsh-speaking Wales was very jealous of him. They wanted to keep him to themselves, because they were so proud of him.
His talents were very Welsh talents, but then they crossed the border. He changed languages with remarkable facility. When Ryan was partnered with Ronnie Williams, things took off. Ronnie was an actor, announcer and comedian and Ryan had similar talents, but was also a musician and clown. A great double act was born that went on to network television, and dominated light entertainment in Wales for years. In the 1970s, Ronnie Williams suffered a stress-related illness, which broke up the partnership, but Ryan continued at full speed.
One Saturday, he presented a morning radio programme. He then went downstairs in Broadcasting House at the BBC, and recorded a children's programme between 9 and 12. He then drove to Swansea for a matinee in the afternoon. He stayed on and did an evening performance between 7.30 and 10. He then drove to Caerphilly to appear in the Double Diamond Club. That's dedication ...
Ryan was interested in all entertainment. He was keen to try his hand at directing, but in the meantime he appeared in films, panto, and a new TV show.
In 1977, at the age of 40, Ryan took his family for a holiday to America where huge changes of temperature aggravated his asthma. While helping with a barbecue, he collapsed and died shortly afterwards of heart failure.
Ryan was full of ideas and plans for the future, never without a project that was either ongoing or about to happen.
That was his professional life, but his epitaph reads: "I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life, and if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death." So he inspired love as well as laughter.
[Lionel Fanthorpe: Talking Stones, HTV, 7.30 pm, 22nd July 2003.]

Ryan's son, Arwyn Davies, has followed his father as a musician and actor. He is best known for his role as ne'er-do-well Mark Jones in the BBC's longest running soap, the Welsh language drama Pobol y Cwm (People of the Valley), broadcast nightly on S4C.

Ryan Davies was always associated with the Welsh ballad 'Myfanwy' which he sang at all his concerts, and whose lyrics, should anyone feel like bursting into song, we reproduce with an English translation by Lynne Davies. All together now ...

Myfanwy (Welsh Lyrics)

Pa ham mae dicter, O Myfanwy,
Yn llenwi'th lygaid duon ddi?
A'th ruddiau tirion, O Myfanwy,
Heb wrido wrth fy ngweled i?
Pa le mae'r wen oedd ar dy wefus
Fu'n cynnau 'nghariad ffyddlon ffol?
Pa le mae sam dy eiriau melys,
Fu'n denu'n nghalon ar dy ôl?
Pa beth a wneuthym, O Myfanwy,
I haeddu gwg dy ddwyrudd hardd?
Ai chwarae oeddit, O Myfanwy
Â thanau euraidd serch dy fardd?
Wyt eiddo im drwy gywir amod -
Ai gormod cadw'th air i mi?
Ni cheisiaf fyth mo'th law, Myfanwy,
Heb gael dy galon gyda hi.
Myfanwy boed yr holl o'th fywyd
Dan heulwen disglair canol dydd.
A boed i rosyn gwridog ienctid
Ddawnsio ganmlwydd ar dy rudd.
Anghofiais oll o'th addewidion
A wnest i rywun, 'ngeneth ddel,
A rho dy law, Myfanwy dirion
I ddim ond dweud y gair "Ffarwel".

English translation by Lynne Davies

Why is it anger, O Myfanwy,
That fills your eyes so dark and clear?
Your gentle cheeks, O sweet Myfanwy,
Why blush they not when I draw near?
Where is the smile that once most tender
Kindled my love so fond, so true?
Where is the sound of your sweet words.
That drew my heart to follow you?
What have I done, O my Myfanwy,
To earn your frown? What is my blame?
Was it just play, my sweet Myfanwy,
To set your poet's love aflame?
You truly once to me were promised,
Is it too much to keep your part?
I wish no more your hand, Myfanwy,
If I no longer have your heart.
Myfanwy, may you spend your lifetime
Beneath the midday sunshine's glow,
And on your cheeks, O may the roses
Dance for a hundred years or so.
Forget now all the words of promise
You made to one who loved you well,
Give me your hand, my sweet Myfanwy,
But one last time, to say "farewell".

With thanks for the above article to Terry Norman at the Ammanford Website

http://www.terrynorm.ic24.net/ryan%20davies.htm

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