Chesney and Wolfe, were a British television comedy screenwriting duo consisting of Ronald Chesney (born René Lucien Cadier; 4 May 1920 – 12 April 2018) 8 August 1922 – 18 December 2011). They were best known for their sitcoms The Rag Trade (1961–1963, 1977–1978), Meet the Wife (1963–1966), On the Buses (1969–1973) and Romany Jones (1972–1975). When their partnership began in the mid-1950s, Chesney was already known to the public as a harmonica player.

Early life

Ronald Chesney

Chesney, was born in London of French descent, the son of Marius, a silk trader, and Jeanne (née Basset). He left the French Lycée school in London at the age of 16, and began using his English name.

Chesney initially learned piano, but decided instead a career as a chromatic harmonica player, performing professionally from the age of 17. Touring the ABC Cinema chain, he played on BBC Radio broadcasts from 1937, the first being Palace of Varieties. Declared unfit to serve in the Second World War because of the removal of a tuberculosis-infected kidney, He was President of the National Hohner Song Band League (later the National Harmonica League) from 1951. His parents ran a kosher restaurant in Whitechapel, which served performers from the variety theatre across the road. He was educated at the Central Foundation Boys' Grammar School in Islington. During the Second World War, he was an army radio operator, and after being demobbed he worked as a radio engineer for Marconi. It also starred Irene Handl.

The first regular television work for Chesney and Wolfe, writing in partnership with Feldman, was in 1958 when ITV franchise holder Associated-Rediffusion made a television version of Educating Archie. He did, however, tutor Sylvia Syms for her harmonica-playing role in the film No Trees in the Street (1959). Sheila Hancock and Barbara Windsor were also in the cast, plus the diminutive Esma Cannon. Directed (and produced) by Dennis Main Wilson, Karlin wrote in her autobiography that Main Wilson had an "amazing capacity for picking the right people" for a cast.

Rejected by Associated-Rediffusion, who thought factory workers would not watch it, the pitch was picked up by Frank Muir and Denis Norden who were then comedy advisers for <!-- BBC Two/BBC2 was not yet on air. -->BBC Television. The series had an audience of up to 20 million, and was more popular at the time than Dad's Army. Doris Hare was his Mum (originally played by Cicely Courtneidge), Both Varney and Grant's characters were womanisers. As David Stubbs wrote for The Guardian in 2008, Grant and Varney were playing "two conspicuously middle-aged men" pursuing "an endless array of improbably available 'dolly birds'".

The series, although a rating success, was nevertheless critically derided at the time of its first broadcast. It led to three film spin-offs, which Chesney and Wolfe both co-wrote and co-produced. The first of these was more successful at the British box office than the year's James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971). It lasted four series, being the most successful in the ratings of their series after On the Buses. has a reputation, shared with Romany Jones, of being one of the worst-ever sitcoms.

In 1977, following the BBC's rejection of a new pilot episode, The Rag Trade was revived by LWT for the ITV network, with Peter Jones and Miriam Karlin returning; it lasted for two series. Anna Karen was "transplanted" into the cast (as Anthony Hayward expressed it in 2011) to play her Olive character from On The Buses. and Take a Letter, Mr. Jones (Southern 1981), a role-reversal comedy created for John Inman, which also starred Rula Lenska. Chesney was no longer a regular harmonica player in his last years; he preferred to play jazz on his grand piano at home. He was survived by his wife Patricia, to whom he was married for 70 years, and their two children, Marianne and Michael.

Television credits

  • Here's Archie (1956) BBC
  • Educating Archie (1958–59) Associated-Rediffusion/ITV
  • The Rag Trade (1961–1963, 1977–1978) BBC, LWT/ITV
  • Comedy Playhouse – "The Bed" (1963, pilot for Meet the Wife) BBC
  • Meet the Wife (1964–1966) BBC
  • Barley Charlie (1964) Nine Network, Australia
  • The Bed-Sit Girl (1965–66) BBC
  • Sorry I'm Single (1967) BBC
  • According To Dora (1968–69) BBC
  • Comedy Playhouse (Series 7) – "Wild, Wild Women" (1968, pilot) BBC
  • Wild, Wild Women (1969, series) BBC
  • On the Buses (1969–1973) LWT
  • The Other Reg Varney (1970, repeated as The Reg Varney Comedy Hour in 1972) LWT
  • Romany Jones (1972, pilot) Thames Television/ITV
  • Romany Jones (1973–75, series) LWT/ITV
  • Don't Drink the Water (1974–75) LWT/ITV
  • Yus, My Dear (1976) LWT/ITV
  • Comedy Special – "The Boys and Mrs B" (1977) BBC
  • Watch This Space (1980) BBC
  • Take a Letter, Mr. Jones (1981) Southern/ITV
  • Allo 'Allo! (1989, episode "Down the Drain", series 5) BBC

Film credits

  • I've Gotta Horse (1965)
  • On the Buses (1971)
  • Mutiny on the Buses (1972)
  • Holiday on the Buses (1973)
  • Fredrikssons Fabrikk – The Movie (Norway 1994)

References

Bibliography

  • http://www.thejc.com/news/people/42391/ronnie-wolfe-takes-his-buses-down-memory-lane