Ralph Riach may not have become a professional actor until he was approaching 50, but he had been passionate about acting and the theatre since his youth. What he lacked in time spent earning his living as an actor he made up for with his almost religious devotion to his craft — and to the rituals and superstitions of the theatre.
During the run of Losing Venice at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 1985, he shared a dressing room with Simon Donald, then a young actor in his first professional role. On opening night, as the pair were making their final preparations, Donald was nervously whistling music from the show when he was dealt a sudden, bony-knuckled skelp on the upper arm by his roommate.
“Now, go outside, turn around three times, swear, then knock and wait to be invited back in,” commanded Riach, an imposing figure at 6ft 2in.
When Donald, who went on to become a successful writer, began to point out that it was the 20th century and that superstition was ridiculous, he received another skelp. “Get!” shouted the normally soft-spoken Riach. And he did.
It became a recurring theme: if Donald inadvertently whistled, he would get a short, sharp skelp. Theirs became an enduring friendship — and friendship was Riach’s other great forte. Indeed, it was celebrated in a poem written by Liz Lochhead in 1996: Portrait of a Gentleman at Sixty — for Ralph Riach. “We appreciate his talent, but each appreciator/ Knows his talent for friendship is even greater,” she wrote, while also mentioning his natural style (“He is always elegant, it matters not a toss/ Whether ’tis kilt, socks and sandshoes, or Hugo Boss”), gift for creative swearing and his sense of humour.
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Beyond his wide circle of friends of all ages he will be best remembered as Robert Carlyle’s psychic sidekick TV John in the BBC comedy drama Hamish Macbeth (1995-97). He was in the show from the first episode, during which a policeman asked the provenance of his name. “TV? What’s that for — Thomas Victor or something?”
“No, TV is short for television, sir,” he replied. “I was the first man in Lochdubh to have a set, you see. A wee 14in Pye it was, so naturally enough the name stuck.”
Ralph McKenzie Riach was born in Elgin in 1936. His father, James Riach, was a barman and his mother, Maggie Ann (née McKenzie), was a homemaker who had been working as a waitress at Elgin’s Grand hotel when the couple married. James already had a son, Ronald Ogilvie, from an earlier relationship and he and Maggie had three boys — Barrie, Ralph and Graeme. He was always drawn to the theatre “but I came from Elgin, where going into acting was just unheard of”.
Nevertheless, a healthy am-dram scene did develop in the town thanks to the Elgin Amateur Dramatic Society. Among Riach’s contributions were playing the knight in a staging of TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral in the ruins of Elgin Cathedral, and directing and starring in its production of Guys and Dolls. His musical talents — he played the piano and sang – were also given a workout at the Elgin Operatic Society, and later in the Perth Amateur Operatic Society.
During this period he embarked on a brief marriage — to Joyce Cunningham (née Curry). He is survived by his son, Drew, his daughter-in-law, Helen, and his grandchildren Jen and Tom.
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Initially he made his living as an architectural draughtsman, “but I gave it up because I hated it so much”, he told the Radio Times in 1997. “I then went on to be a self-employed upholsterer and a theatrical landlord in Perth. Richard Todd was my first lodger.”
In his forties he finally decided to try to make it as an actor. He landed a place on the drama course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dance in Glasgow. “When I realised you didn’t need academic qualifications to train to be an actor, I just thought, you’ve got to have a go.” Being the oldest in his classes did not bother him. “I got on fine. I thoroughly enjoyed my three years there.”
Fellow students benefited from his experience and wisdom, and he was soon appearing in such diverse productions as Elizabeth Gordon Quinn at the Traverse in 1985 and the Jimmy Logan-directed comedy Don’t Tell the Wife at Dundee Rep in 1987. Later stage roles included that of Tiresias in the National Theatre of Scotland’s 2007 production of The Bacchae, alongside Alan Cumming.
From the late 1980s he was a familiar face on television, popping up in everything from Granada’s lavish period drama Lost Empires, alongside Sir Laurence Olivier, to STV’s Taggart in which he played three different characters at different times between 1996 and 2003.
In BBC Scotland’s classic black comedy-drama Tutti Frutti (1987), the gentle giant played the simple barman in the Buckie pub where members of the Majestics collapse with barely suppressed laughter at the spectacle of bandmate Vincent turning up wearing the oversized cardigan knitted for him in baby wool by his young girlfriend.
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“Ralphie” enjoyed regaling friends with how, during filming, he had struggled to keep a straight face at the sight of “the hard man of Scottish rock” swapping his trademark black leather for baby blue and pink.
Subsequent screen work included the films Braveheart (1995) and Cloud Atlas (2012), and on TV his later roles included playing John Laurie in We’re Doomed! The Dad’s Army Story (2015) and Ralfi Sigurdson in Fortitude (2017-18), written by his whistling friend Simon Donald — between skelps.
Ralph Riach, actor, was born on January 26, 1936. He died on March 20, 2022, aged 86