Ronnie Wolfe

[Mr Sloane]

BBC News - On The Buses writer Ronnie Wolfe dies

[faginsgirl]

A sad end indeed!

But reunited, no doubt, with the actors who brought his work to life so well.

[Richard_in_wales]

Bless him, R.I.P. sir.

[Merton Park]

Writer and creator of On the Buses and The Rag Trade Ronnie Wolfe passed away aged 89.

BBC News - On The Buses writer Ronnie Wolfe dies

RIP

[smudge]

Sorry to hear of Ronnie's passing. Was lucky enough to meet him at his first Elstree event some time ago now. A very nice chap.

Rest In Peace, Ronnie.

Respect,

Smudge

[captainhaddock]

he's in a better prace now .

i think this was his finest moment

[cassidy]

BBC teletext has announced the death of scriptwriter Ronald Wolfe of On the Buses fame after a fall at his home. R.I.P.

[Euryale]

Co-writer of On The Buses and many other sitcoms with Ron Chesney, has died at 89:

BBC News - On The Buses writer Ronnie Wolfe dies

Ronald's filmography:

Ronald Wolfe - IMDb


E.

[Timmy_Lea]

On the Hearses?

[julian_craster]

Ronnie Wolfe

Daily Telegraph:
Ronnie Wolfe - Telegraph

19 Dec 2011

Ronnie Wolfe, who has died aged 89, was one of the creators of the television comedies The Rag Trade (1961-63) and On The Buses (1970-75), among many other sitcoms.

With his writing partner Ronald Chesney, Wolfe created such catchphrases as “Everybody out!” (the battle-cry of the bolshie, chain-smoking shop steward played by Miriam Karlin in The Rag Trade), and “I’ll get you, Butler” (the unavailing weekly threat of Blakey, the fist-shaking inspector, played by Stephen Lewis, in On The Buses).

Wolfe’s partnership with Chesney, now 92, led to the pair being known as “the other Two Ronnies”.

On The Buses was commissioned by ITV after being rejected by the BBC, despite the success of Wolfe and Chesney’s earlier series The Rag Trade. It featured such characters as Reg Varney’s bus driver Stan Butler, and the amorous conductor Jack Harper (Bob Grant), and led to three spin-off films.

Wolfe and Chesney’s other popular shows included Meet The Wife (BBC, 1964-66) with Thora Hird and Freddie Frinton, and, for ITV, Yus , My Dear (1976), and Take A Letter, Mr Jones (1981), with John Inman.

Harvey Ronald Wolfe-Luberoff was born on August 8 1922 at Stoke Newington, north London. His grandparents were Russian migrants who had settled in the East End, where his father ran a small chain of restaurants before moving to Southend-on-Sea to run a highly-successful fish and chip shop called Wolfe’s.

Ronnie was educated at the Central Foundation Boys’ Grammar School, Islington, and during the war worked as a radio engineer at the Ecko factory in Southend. During tea breaks, he entertained staff with stand-up routines, and in the 1950s he moved into writing, turning out scripts for the Jewish comedian Max Bacon . This led to his scripting a weekly spot for Beryl Reid, as the young Brummie Marlene, in the BBC Radio comedy series Educating Archie. When the chief writer, Eric Sykes, left the show, Wolfe took over.

His highly successful partnership with Ronald Chesney, a harmonica-playing comedian, began with The Rag Trade, set in an East End garment workshop, which they created and wrote, and which caught the mood of factory floor life in the early 1960s. “Everybody out!” became a national catchphrase. Such was the show’s wide appeal that it also did well abroad.

Also in the cast was the comedian Reg Varney, who 10 years later starred as the bus driver Stan Butler in On The Buses, which they created and wrote for London Weekend. Set in a London bus depot, this was another workplace sitcom. As in The Rag Trade, the stories largely hinged on assorted battles between staff and management . Once again, the humour proved exportable, and more than 100 episodes of the series were remade for television in South Africa, using a different cast.

Of the three spin-off films, the first, also called On The Buses, became the highest-earning British film of 1971. Wolfe and Chesney wrote the scripts and also produced the films.

Their next television success came with four series of Meet The Wife (1964-66), which developed from a single Comedy Playhouse presentation in 1963 called The Bed. Starring Freddie Frinton, and Thora Hird as his socially ambitious wife, it is the only British sitcom to be cited in a Beatles song. In Good Morning, Good Morning on the album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), John Lennon, who wrote it, sings: “It’s time for tea and Meet The Wife”.

Ronnie Wolfe married, in 1953, Rose Krieger who, as his secretary, estimated she typed 95 per cent of his entire comic output. She and their two daughters survive him.

Ronnnie Wolfe, born August 8 1922, died December 18 2011

[faginsgirl]

The On the Buses Christmas episode on ITV3 (black and white) has just been shown as a tribute to Ronnie.

[harryfielder]

I got to meet him a few times down at Elstree.... Thank you for your work Ronnie...R.I.P.....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4..._5849788_a.jpg

[Nick Dando]

From the Guardian

Ronald Wolfe obituary | Television & radio | The Guardian

Nick

Ronald Wolfe obituary
Co-writer of TV sitcoms On the Buses and The Rag Trade
Anthony Hayward
guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 December 2011 18.57 GMT


At the height of his writing partnership with Ronald Chesney, Ronald Wolfe, who has died aged 89 after a fall, enjoyed huge success with the sitcom On the Buses; its bawdy humour was panned by the critics but lapped up by the viewing public. Originally turned down by the BBC, the idea for a comedy based around the antics of a driver and conductor giving their inspector the runaround at the Luxton Bus Company appealed to Frank Muir, head of entertainment at the newly launched ITV company London Weekend Television.

Reg Varney played Stan Butler, at the wheel of the No 11, and Bob Grant was his lothario conductor, Jack. The pair made life hell for the miserable Inspector Blake (Stephen Lewis). Blakey's "Get that bus out" and "I 'ate you, Butler" were two of the most frequent lines that flowed from the pens of Wolfe and Chesney. The bachelor Stan was also seen at home with his dowdy sister, Olive (Anna Karen), idle brother-in-law, Arthur (Michael Robbins), and domineering but devoted widowed mother (Cicely Courtneidge, replaced after the first series by Doris Hare).

"The two Ronnies", as they became known, wrote 73 television episodes of On the Buses (1969-73), watched by up to 16 million people. The sitcom was also remarkable for spawning three film spin-offs, On the Buses (1971), Mutiny on the Buses (1972) and Holiday on the Buses (1973). The first was the highest earning British picture of 1971 and the cast also undertook stage tours. Although the television format was sold to America as Lotsa Luck (1973-74), with Wolfe and Chesney under contract to NBC, they were unable to fulfil the demand for episodes themselves, so other writers were hired and the series was short-lived.

The idea for the series was an extension of their previous workplace sitcom The Rag Trade (1961-63), for the BBC, a union satire about Mr Fenner (Peter Jones) and his foreman, Reg (Varney), battling the belligerent shop steward, Paddy (Miriam Karlin), and all of the female workforce at Fenner Fashions' dressmaking workshop. The catchphrase here was Paddy's: "Everybody out!" When The Rag Trade was revived by LWT (1977-78), only Jones and Karlin returned, but they were joined by Anna Karen as Olive, transplanted from On the Buses.

Wolfe was born in Hackney, east London, and was a cousin of the actor Warren Mitchell. He worked as a radio engineer for Marconi before contributing scripts to BBC radio series and writing material for Beryl Reid's stage shows. In 1953, a year after Reid joined the radio comedy Educating Archie, starring the ventriloquist Peter Brough and his schoolboy puppet, he was asked to produce scripts for it and eventually became head writer. The programme also featured Chesney performing his "talking harmonica" novelty act and at times included Benny Hill, Dick Emery and Bruce Forsyth.

Wolfe and Chesney continued in the same roles for a 1956 BBC television special and the 1957 series Archie in Australia but, when ITV launched Educating Archie (1958-59) on television, Chesney abandoned performing and worked on scripts, doing the same for the final two radio series, finishing in 1960. Chesney and Wolfe then created another BBC radio series, It's a Deal (1961), for Sid James, as a bungling property developer.

After The Rag Trade, the pair had a string of successes: Meet the Wife (1963-66), featuring Thora Hird and Freddie Frinton as a middle-aged married couple; The Bed-sit Girl (1965-66), starring Sheila Hancock as a bored typist; Sorry I'm Single (1967), with Derek Nimmo as an eternal student; and Wild, Wild Women (1968-69), a variation on The Rag Trade that was set in a millinery basement sweatshop and included Barbara Windsor and Pat Coombs in the cast. Wolfe and Chesney also wrote Barley Charlie (1964), another workplace sitcom, for Australian television. In the 1970s, they tended to stick with characters and move them from one series to another. Arthur Mullard and Queenie Watts played a couple living on a caravan park in Romany Jones (1972-75), then were seen starting a new life in a council house in Yus My Dear (1976). Meanwhile, Don't Drink the Water (1974-75) took Lewis's On the Buses character, Cyril Blake, to a retirement flat in Spain.

Another workplace sitcom, Watch This Space (1980), set in an advertising agency, failed to capture the public's imagination. The final British series from Chesney and Wolfe was Take a Letter Mr Jones (1981), with John Inman as Rula Lenska's secretary. They later wrote a 1989 episode of 'Allo 'Allo! and the screenplay for the Norwegian film Fredrikssons Fabrikk – The Movie, based on the Norwegian television version of The Rag Trade.

In retirement, Wolfe was a regular on the after-dinner speaker circuit. He also lectured to media studies students and published Writing Comedy (1992).

In 1953, he married Rose Krieger. She and their two daughters survive him.

• Harvey Ronald Wolfe Luberoff, writer, born 8 August 1922; died 18 December 2011

[julian_craster]

Ronald Wolfe: Writer and producer best known for 'The Rag Trade' and 'On The Buses'




INDEPENDENT
Thursday 22 December 2011

Ronald Wolfe: Writer and producer best known for 'The Rag Trade' and 'On The Buses' - Obituaries - News - The Independent



The industrious comedy writer and producer Ronald Wolfe, who has died aged 89 following a fall, was best known for his successful sitcoms The Rag Trade and On The Buses. Despite the very British flavour of his work, some of it would achieve international success. In later life, he happily settled into the role of an elder statesman of showbusiness, keen to impart his knowledge of the industry to others.

A Jewish Londoner of Russian extraction, Wolfe began his working life as a radio engineer. He was briefly a stand-up comedian himself, recalling that "I came from vaudeville and music halls". His writing partner throughout his career, Ronald Chesney, whom he always referred to as "Ches", then had an act playing Ravel's Bolero on the harmonica. Wolfe said of their writing methods, "Ches has the better concentration and is the better editor, so he's the 'putter-downer' while I'm the 'walker-rounder'."

Among his earliest writing credits was Starlight Hour (1951), a series on BBC Radio's Light Programme with Beryl Reid among its regulars. He became Reid's scriptwriter, initially for her schoolgirl character Monica; when she was added to the cast of Educating Archie, its creator and writer Eric Sykes agreed to Wolfe's joining its writing team. Wolfe was represented by Kavanagh Productions, whose other clients included Sykes, Spike Milligan, Frank Muir and Denis Norden.

For television, Muir and Norden, then the BBC's comedy advisers, picked up The Rag Trade, which ran from1961-63. Miriam Karlin was well cast as the strident shop steward Paddy (and briefly made "Everybody out!" into a catchphrase), while Peter Jones played the factory boss Fenner, employing the same Cockney-Jewish intonations he had used in his radio work with Peter Ustinov. The strength of the femaleensemble playing the workforce, who included Sheila Hancock, Barbara Windsor and the timorous, bird-like Esma Cannon, was attributed tothe show's being taped on Sundays, when they were free from their West End commitments.

The series achieved ratings of over 11 million, and a West End version opened at the Piccadilly in December 1962. It had a certain critical standing, due to its strong female roles and hitherto unexplored mining of industrial relations, that Wolfe and Chesney's later work would not achieve.

The Bed-Sit Girl (BBC, 1965-66) was a Wolfe and Chesney vehicle for Sheila Hancock, then struggling with a "dizzy blonde" image, which she would successfully discard. The supporting cast included Derek Nimmo, for whom they then wrote Sorry I'm Single (BBC, 1967), casting him as a bashful "eternal student". Wild, Wild Women (BBC, 1969) had superficial similarities with The Rag Trade, with Barbara Windsor heading the workforce in a milliners' sweatshop, except that it was set in the 1900s.

On The Buses having been turned down by the BBC, Muir, then Head of Comedy at London Weekend, commissioned it for LWT , later terming it "rather at the baked beans end of my menu". Running from 1969-73, at the time it was more successful in the ratings than Dad's Army; there can be no argument over which of the two has proved more durable in re-runs, however.

As more than one surprised scholar of British film has recorded, the 1971 film version (curiously, a Hammerproduction) was the biggest domestically produced film at the British box office that year, outgrossing the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. Wolfe and Chesney were its co-producersas well as co-writers, duties they reprised for Mutiny On The Buses (1972) andHoliday On The Buses (1973). Jonathan Lynn noted in his recent book Comedy Rules that Wolfe and Chesney then seemed to be moving towards American-style positions as creator-producers, hence drafting in other writers for the TV series, while they concentrated on the films.

Returning to sitcoms, Romany Jones (LWT, 1973-75) and Yus My Dear (LWT, 1976) both centred on Arthur Mullard. A revival of The Rag Trade (LWT, 1977-78), with Karlin and Jones returning, did not match the original's impact. Neither Watch This Space (BBC, 1980), set in the advertising industry, nor Take A Letter, Mr Jones (Southern, 1981), a vehicle for John Inman, achieved their earlier projects' success.

In 1986, Wolfe began tutoring on comedy writing at City University in London, continuing to do so in 1988, and at Central St Martins College of Art and Design in 2004. He published Writing Comedy in 1992 (revised edition 2003).

Regularly attending international television festivals, he had a stage sequel to On The Buses produced in Canada in 1987, although plans for Back On The Buses in the early 1990s, a further sitcom in which the original characters would have owned their own fleet of buses, did not happen. An idea to revive his sitcom for Thora Hird and Freddie Frinton, Meet The Wife (BBC, 1963-66) for Les Dawson was scuppered by Dawson's death; similarly, Kangaroo Alley, a BBC sitcom about Australian expatriates, remained earthbound.

To his own surprise, Fredrikssons Fabrikk, a translated version of The Rag Trade, proved highly popular in Norway and Sweden in the early '90's. He was a genial presence at screenings and debates on television comedy at the National Film Theatre.

Gavin Gaughan

Harvey Ronald Wolfe-Luberoff, writer and producer: born Stoke Newington, London 8 August 1922; married 1953 Rose Kreiger (two daughters); died Surrey 18 December 2011.

[julian_craster]

Apparently the actor Warren Mitchell was Ronnie's cousin.......