Ronnie Le Drew is responsible for the high standard of operating skills LSP students are expected to achieve. He has proved to be a valuable support to students, collaborating with them and assisting when they require an extra puppeteer. He is eager to encourage new and innovative work enhanced by excellent puppetry. He is part of the internal assessment team of LSP.
Ronnie was born in Toronto, Canada and trained at the Little Angel Theatre, London under John Wright. Theatre credits have included Ala-al-din (Clifford Heap Miniature Theatre UK Tour), Through Wooden Eyes (Hogarth Puppets UK Tour), Hans The Bell Ringer (Oxford Playhouse and Civic Theatre, Darlington), Angelo (Purcell Room, London), Soldiers Tale, Genevieve De Brabant, Reynard The Fox, Amahl And The Night Visitors (Queen Elizabeth Hall, London and Norwich Puppet Theatre), Cinderella, Frog Prince, Peter And The Wolf, Pinocchio (Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham) and Polynesia in Doctor Dolittle (UK Tour). His association with the Little Angel Theatre spans over forty years as performer and later director throughout the UK (including a tour of Scotland funded by the Scottish Arts council) as well as America, Israel, Denmark, Belgium and Czechoslovakia.
Ronnie’s numerous television credits began in 1964 with A Touch Of Don Juan (BBC - narrated by Douglas Fairbanks JR), The Little Mermaid (Associated Re-diffusion), Late Night Line Up (BBC), Mak The Sheep Stealer (ATV), Michael Bentine’s Potty TimeUtterly Brilliant with Timmy Mallet (Thames), The Tommy Cooper Show (Thames), Playdays (BBC), Mortimer And Arabel (BBC), (YTV), Good Morning With Anne And Nick (BBC), Jay’s World (Meridian), Roger And The Rotten Trolls (ITV), Bill’s New Frock (Channel 4), The Puppet Man with Roy Hudd (Channel 4) and Write Away (Channel 4). Ronnie was fortunate to appear with Harry Corbett, Matthew Corbett and also Richard Cadell on The Sooty Show (Thames) and also Sooty Heights (Granada) mainly as Sweep, occasionally as Sooty and once as Scampy! However he is probably best known as Zippy from ITV’s Rainbow and later Rainbow Days. As Zippy Ronnie has appeared on The Jim Davidson Show (Thames), The Generation Game“Night Fever” (BBC), Channel 5’s , The Jonathon Ross Show (Channel 4), The World Of Puppets (BBC) and The Greatest 100 Kids TV Shows (Channel 4), as well as appearances at The Fridge, The Hammersmith Palais and with the ever popular shop tour promoting Golden Bear’s Rainbow range! And not forgetting “The Rainbow Disco Road Show” playing clubs, disco’s and student unions all over the UK Film appearances include The Naked Runner which starred Frank Sinatra, A Dandy In Aspic, Labyrinth, Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island and Little Shop Of Horrors. Commercials include Rowntree’s Jelly Tots, Harvest Crunch, American Yellow Pages, London Dockyard’s Crows and even one for a Swedish toilet roll! However, his most enjoyable would be for The Ideal Home Exhibition in the seventies where he got to operate the original Bill and Ben (the flowerpot men!)
He has taught at The Little Angel Theatre, The Central School Of Speech And Drama and The Science Of Acting School as well as The London School Of Puppetry, and acted as puppetry consultant on The National Theatre’s Gulliver’s Travels, The Young Vic’s More Grimm Tales and Arabian Nights and The National Youth Music Theatre’s Whistle Down The Wind. Ronnie also performs his own puppet shows based on his own creations - Snitchity Titch, The Robber and The Dodo Bird! And for the very young, “The Brilliant Bag Show”
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