Ronan Vibert, Vibertology, Birds of a Feather, Pauline Quirke
~  Birds of a Feather
n. Love on the Run
TV Series (BBC) 1990:     Ronan content: approx  17%   (28 mins)
Character:Martin, polite jobbing-artist & fresh meat for Sharon 
Cast:Pauline Quirke Sharon, Linda Robson Tracey, Lesley Joseph Dorien, 
Alun Lewis Darryl,Jo Martin Joy, Lloyd McGuire Policeman, Ronan Vibert Martin
Dir: Charlie Hanson   Wri: Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran
Availablity: not released. Repeats regularly on UK Gold digital broadcast & BBC 
Plot/Comments:
This easy-going sitcom (two chalk-and-cheese sisters married to jailbird husbands) was a mainstay of weekday evening light entertainment for the BBC in the '90s and ran for eight series. 
   Tracey (sensible, earthy) and her convict husband Darryl, take advantage of his appendicitis operation to arrange a one-off night of fugitive wedded bliss in a local hotel. Meanwhile, Sharon (roguish, mouthy) uses their empty house to do some Mrs Robinson-style entertaining of her own with a young, naive, and painfully polite jobbing artist (Ronan Vibert), under the pretext of commissioning a painting. 
Needless to say, farcical situations dog Tracey and Darryl's potential night of passion; Sharon saves the day on the morning after (instructing the dazed and exhausted Martin to clear up the rubbish-strewn bedroom before he leaves); and Darryl escapes fugitive status and returns to prison by the skin of his teeth. 
     Tracey returns to her bedroom to find it filled with the wreckage of Sharon's seduction of Martin  (cue Pernod bottles, potato crisp packets, fish and chip wrappers), ending with his brief, shocked and embarrassed towel-clad appearance.
Back Traffik
Back The Secret Rapture
Next Jeeves and Wooster
VIBERTOGRAPHY
This episode is full of obvious, old-fashioned sitcom jokes which feel surprisingly stiff and awkward considering the pedigree of the writers and performers. 
    While it's possible that it was just  first-series bugs, only Pauline Quirke (of Maisy Rayne) comes off well, with her television  charisma filling up the holes.
Ronan content: 

Not his best: like the guests at the ambassador's Ferrero Rocher party, I have been spolit. 
Although he is playing an over-polite, eager, shy young artist with little in the way of self-confidence, the delivery seems a lot more awkward than usual. However, in comparison with the rest of the cast, he equips himself well enough, and this style could well have been what the director wanted from them.
Typical Ronan Character Quotes:
  • "Once you ask 'why' of art, you begin the great debate that has preoccupied the world's greatest thinkers since the dawn of recorded time"
  • "I'm just a struggling artist without much talent"
 
My own personal (and admittedly ropey) theory is that although he seems to have become a specialist in meatier and more potentially complex characters, in Birds, he's the character who reacts to another actor: he is the straight man and foil to Pauline Quirke. It seems that he'd be more comfortable and more interested in being the more OTT character.
As  proved in Gimme Gimme Gimme and (especially) Jeeves and Wooster, he has deft timing and is excellent at portraying comic characters, but using him as a complete straight man here is a waste.
n.He reappeared as Martin in the Christmas special four years later. It would be interesting to see how the writers changed his character: pleaseemailme if you have this episode.