Ronald Chesney, once Britain’s leading British chromatic harmonica soloist, was born Rene Cadier to French parents in 1920 in the UK. After a high profile musical carer he gave up playing in the early 1960s to become a very successful comedy script writer for radio, TV and films.

Chesney’s first public performance was at the age of 17, and following a cinema variety tour, he made his first radio broadcast in 1937 on the BBC’s ‘Palace of Varieties’ programme. With the outbreak of war he was asked by the BBC to give harmonica lessons to the troops over the radio. The programme ran for 42 weeks and he had over 10,000 letters from around the world.

At the end of the war he developed a classical repertoire that included pieces by Debussy, Chopin, Heifetz and DeFalla, and toured the concert halls, including a two hour recital at the Royal Albert Hall in London. It was very well received and was followed over the next few years by appearances at the London Palladium and the Paris Lido, concert tours with Gracie Fields, and overseas visits to South Africa and Australia. Ronald played with Duke Ellington, The Suisse Romande Orchestra, and George Melachrino and his Orchestra, amongst others.

He also made recordings for REX, HMV and EMI. Chesney became President of the National Harmonica League League in 1951, and in the 1950s had a regular musical spot on the Archie Andrews BBC radio show. This was a great period for lovers of the harmonica, with both Larry Adler and Tommy Reilly also enjoying much success.

In the early 1960s Chesney decided on a career change, and became comedy script writer, and with his partner Ronald Wolfe, became one of the most successful comedy writing teams with TV series ‘On the Buses’, Meet the Wife’, ‘The Rag Trade’, and ‘Romany Jones’, which led to follow-ups on films and in versions for many other countries.

Ronald’s show stopper in his stage performances, and probably his most famous recording, was ‘The Flight of the Bumble Bee’ by Rimskij-Korsakov. Because of the speed at which he played it – and the difficulty of the piece – he developed a variation to please the musical audience and make it last longer. Although he gave up the harmonica professionally in the 1960s, he continued to play jazz on the piano as recreation.

Ronald Chesney, a much loved father and grandfather, passed away peacefully on April 12th at the age of 98.