Terence Ryan is a British film director, writer, and producer.
He has written, directed and produced eight feature films and he as also produced and directed an enormous variety of television programs and television series ranging from serious drama and comedy to sport, music and documentary.

Feature films directed and produced by Terence Ryan include The Brylcreem Boys

The Brylcreem Boys

The Brylcreem Boys is a 1998 film directed and co-written by Terence Ryan about the extraordinary neutrality arrangements pertaining to Ireland during World War II, by the Éamon de Valera government...

, Puckoon

Puckoon

Puckoon is a comic novel by Spike Milligan, first published in 1963. It is his first full-length novel, and only major fictional work. Set in 1924, it details the troubles brought to the fictional Irish village of Puckoon by the Partition of Ireland: the new border, due to the incompetence of the...

, Going Home, Hold My Hand I'm Dying. Feature films produced by Terence Ryan include Botched

Botched

-Plot:Richie Donovan works as a professional thief for Groznyi , a wealthy businessman, in order to pay off his debt for being smuggled into America as a child. He pulls off a successful diamond heist, but it is botched when he gets involved in two separate car accidents...

, Heaven on Earth.

His work includes films in the genres of drama, comedy, music, and sport. He has also produced and directed social documentaries for charities including Help the Aged

Help the Aged

Help the Aged was a United Kingdom based, international charity, founded in 1961 by Cecil Jackson-Cole, to free disadvantaged older people from poverty, isolation and neglect. It merged with Age Concern in 2009 to form Age UK.-Organisation and campaigns:...

, Who Matters, Children in Need

Children in Need

Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...

 and Immunization Awareness.

Terence Ryan is a founding member of the Irish Academy of Film.

He was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Career

Terence Ryan began his film career in 1972 at the London International Film School. His first short feature, dramatising the life of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...

, was awarded the Finbar Prize for the Best Film at the Cork Film Festival. This film also won Terence Ryan the Grierson Award at the 1972 UK BAFTA Awards.

In 1980 Terence Ryan formed Opix Films with partner Ray Marshall. The company produced 120 films and television series over a twelve-year period. Thirty films made at Opix, produced and directed by Terence Ryan won international awards.

In 1982 Terence Ryan produced and directed the sports series Focus on Soccer with sporting greats including Kevin Keegan

Kevin Keegan

Joseph Kevin Keegan, OBE is a former international footballer and former manager of the England national football team and several English clubs, most notably Newcastle United....

, Ray Clemence

Ray Clemence

Raymond Neal "Ray" Clemence, MBE is one of English and European football's most decorated goalkeepers ever and was part of the Liverpool team of the 1970s.-Scunthorpe United:...

 and Graham Hill

Graham Hill

Norman Graham Hill was a British racing driver and two-time Formula One World Champion. He is the only driver to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport — the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Indianapolis 500 and Formula One World Championship.Graham Hill and his son Damon are the only father and son pair both to...

. He also produced and directed two further sports series for Sky Television plc

Sky Television plc

Sky Television plc was a public limited company which operated its four-channel satellite television service, launched by Rupert Murdoch's News International on 5 February 1989...

, Focus on Rugby and Superstars of Soccer.

From 1982–87 Terence Ryan wrote, produced and directed seven comedy television features in association with both the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 and ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 starring British comedians Jasper Carrott

Jasper Carrott

Jasper Carrott OBE is a British comedian, actor, television presenter and personality.-Early life:...

, Billy Connolly

Billy Connolly

William "Billy" Connolly, Jr., CBE is a Scottish comedian, musician, presenter and actor. He is sometimes known, especially in his native Scotland, by the nickname The Big Yin...

 and Max Boyce

Max Boyce

Maxwell Boyce MBE is a Welsh comedian, singer and former coal miner. He rose to fame during the mid-1970s with an act that combined musical comedy with his passion for rugby union and his origins in the mining communities of South Wales...

.

In 1988 Terence Ryan produced and directed the award winning WWI feature film, Going Home, a co-production with Canada's Paterson Ferns at Primedia Films and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

. Going Home was nominated in the Canada Gemini Award

Gemini Award

The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...

s in the categories Best Director and best film. He was awarded the gold medal at the Huston Film Festival for Going Home.

In 1989 Terence Ryan directed the feature film adaptation of the John Gordon-Davis novel Hold My Hand I'm Dying, the story of the building of the Kariba Dam

Kariba Dam

The Kariba Dam is a hydroelectric dam in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is one of the largest dams in the world, standing tall and long.- Construction :...

 between Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

 and Zambia

Zambia

Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

, starring Oliver Reed

Oliver Reed

Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...

.

In 1997 Terence Ryan produced and directed the romantic adventure feature The Brylcreem Boys

The Brylcreem Boys

The Brylcreem Boys is a 1998 film directed and co-written by Terence Ryan about the extraordinary neutrality arrangements pertaining to Ireland during World War II, by the Éamon de Valera government...

, set in 1940s Ireland. Starring Gabriel Byrne

Gabriel Byrne

Gabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined Londo's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the...

 and Bill Campbell

Billy Campbell

William Oliver "Billy" Campbell is an American film and television actor. In television, he is best known for his roles as Rick Sammler on Once and Again, as Det. Joey Indelli on Crime Story, as Jordan Collier on The 4400, and as Dr. Jon Fielding on the Tales of the City Miniseries...

, this film has become one of the most broadcast film on American Television.

In 1999 the Welsh Arts Council honoured Terence Ryan for his work in film.

In 2000, Terence Ryan produced and directed the feature comedy Puckoon

Puckoon

Puckoon is a comic novel by Spike Milligan, first published in 1963. It is his first full-length novel, and only major fictional work. Set in 1924, it details the troubles brought to the fictional Irish village of Puckoon by the Partition of Ireland: the new border, due to the incompetence of the...

, adapted from the best selling novel by Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan

Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...

, with a cast including Richard Attenborough

Richard Attenborough

Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...

, Elliott Gould

Elliott Gould

Elliott Gould is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s, and has remained prolific ever since. Some of his most notable films include M*A*S*H and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, for which he received an Oscar nomination...

, Milo O'Shea

Milo O'Shea

-Early life:He was born and raised in Dublin and educated by the Christian Brothers at Synge Street, along with his friend Donal Donnelly.He was discovered in the 1950s by Harry Dillon, who ran the "37 Theatre Club" on the top floor of his shop The Swiss Gem Company, 51 Lower O'Connell Street...

, Daragh O'Malley

Daragh O'Malley

Daragh O'Malley is an Irish film, theatre and television actor, best known for his portrayal of the much loved and ever faithful but rather fearsome Patrick Harper in the legendary Sharpe TV series along side Sean Bean...

, David Kelly

David Kelly (actor)

David Kelly is an Irish actor, who has been in regular film and television work since the 1950s.-Acting career:Playing everything from Beckett to Shakespeare, he has appeared in Theatre, TV and film constantly since 1959...

 and John Kavanagh.

In 2006 Terence Ryan produced the film Botched

Botched

-Plot:Richie Donovan works as a professional thief for Groznyi , a wealthy businessman, in order to pay off his debt for being smuggled into America as a child. He pulls off a successful diamond heist, but it is botched when he gets involved in two separate car accidents...

(aka 13), filmed in Ireland at Ardmore Studios

Ardmore Studios

Ardmore Studios is a film studio in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland which was founded by Emmet Dalton and opened by the Minister for Industry and Commerce Seán Lemass on May 12, 1958....

, Dublin.

2008 saw the publication of The Rise and Rise of the Independents, written by Ian Potter, published by Guerilla Publishing, Nov. 2008. This book details Terence Ryan's career as one of the major Independent Film Producers in the UK and Ireland.

Terence Ryan is married to screenwriter Susan Morrall. They have two sons, film director Kit Ryan and film producer James T. Ryan.

External links and references