Christian Rodska, actor who played biker dude Ron Stryker in the hit ITV series Follyfoot – obituary

Christian Rodska as Ron Stryker – ITV/Shutterstock

Christian Rodska, who has died aged 78, acquired a following of horse-mad little and not so little girls when he played the part of the bad-boy biker Ron Stryker in Follyfoot, ITV’s hit horsey series which ran on late Sunday afternoons from 1971 until 1973.

The series, also memorable for its catchy theme music, The Lightning Tree (sung by the Settlers) was based on an original story by Monica Dickens centred around a retirement home for old and neglected horses. The series, mainly filmed on the Harewood estate in Yorkshire, featured melodramatic storylines, full of stock country characters – tweedy landed gents, eccentric farmers, gypsies, greasy newspaper hacks, heroic working-class miners and bobbies on bicycles.

Christian Rodska as Stryker: ‘after a couple of hasty lessons I could mount a horse, sit up straight (ish) and was aware that something called a ‘girth’ had to be tight’ – ITV/Shutterstock

Usually clad in denim, Rodska’s character would zoom into Follyfoot stable yard each morning, Easy Rider-style, on a noisy, customised Triumph Tiger Cub motorcycle, his unruly locks flying in the wind; he looked good on horseback too. Sent to work at Follyfoot by his father to keep him out of trouble, he was a loveable rogue who got up to all sorts of mischief, skived off work at every opportunity, but had a soft spot for the main character Dora (Gillian Blake).

Rodska recalled that he landed the part by claiming he could ride, which was untrue, though “after a couple of hasty lessons I could mount a horse, sit up straight (ish) and was aware that something called a ‘girth’ had to be tight, or you’d end upside down underneath the animal.”

Rodska went on to take roles in numerous television dramas, was a regular on Radio 4’s Book of the Week and Book at Bedtime and took part in many Radio 4 afternoon plays which often featured in the Telegraph’s “Today’s choice” listings.

In addition he narrated an astonishing number of audiobooks, ranging from CS Forester’s Hornblower series to all four volumes of Sir Winston Churchill’s A History of the English Speaking Peoples.

However he never regained the fan following he enjoyed as Ron Stryker.

He was born Christian Rodskjaer on September 5 1945 in Cullercoats, Northumberland. His father was a Danish sea captain who at one time captained the Royal Yacht of King Faisal of Iraq.

Rodska began acting professionally in the late 1960s, one of his first roles being in a 1968 edition of The Wednesday Play on BBC1. After Follyfoot he appeared in numerous series such as Z Cars, Coronation Street (1980, as house salesman Harry Newton), Brookside, Bergerac, Casualty, Taggart and Wycliffe.

Christian Rodska in Doc Martin, 2009 – ITV/Shutterstock

He had a recurring role in The Stars Look Down (1974), the TV miniseries based on the novel by A J Cronin. He took the role of Esca in the 1977 BBC adaptation of Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth and was Duncan Fraser in the feature-length Tenko Christmas special Reunion. He had many roles on stage particularly at the Bristol Old Vic, and his film credits included  The Likely Lads (1976) and The Monuments Men (2014), in which he played President Truman.

He was in great demand for voice-overs, narrating Ice Road Truckers on the Discovery Channel, as well as MegaStructures for Channel Five. He sometimes worked in partnership with Steve Hodson, his Follyfoot co-star, on audiobooks narrations.

Rodska remained busy into the 21st century, guest-starring in the Doctor Who audio drama Faith Stealer (2004), appearing on Doc Martin and in the 2008 drama Margaret Thatcher – The Long Walk to Finchley. He played gruff, old-school DI Dennis Carter in the BBC’s 55 Degrees North (2004-5) and was Winston Churchill in the BBC history documentaries Churchill: Winning the War, Losing the Peace, and Churchill: When Britain Said No (both 2015).

Rodska is survived by his wife Barbara and by a son and daughter from his first marriage to Jacqueline.

Christian Rodska, born September 5 1945, died March 21 2024

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