Ritchie de Vries Ritchie de Vries ( real name : Rodney Purvis ) was an old friend of Dennis Tanner from the 1960s who he worked with in his show business days . Dennis started to get the bug to revisit his old life and got in touch with his friend who had his own band , " The Power " , who had reached No . 13 in 1965 with " Sweets of the Night " . He arranged to meet Ritchie in Nick ' s Bistro and Rita Tanner and Norris Cole , amused but intrigued , towed along . Gloria Price heard about the impending visit and , much to Rita ' s annoyance , joined them . When Ritchie arrived , he was revealed as a sad , ageing rocker , boasting about his group ' s recent appearance in Albania where " The Power " were still big , as well as Crewe and Redcar . Gloria suggested that the group play at the bistro and Dennis readily agreed to help with the organisation , to Rita ' s obvious annoyance . When Ritchie arrived a few days later to discuss arrangements , Rita inveigled herself into the discussions , mainly to annoy Gloria , as did Mary Taylor , taken with the showbiz mystique , who said that she would be on the front row at the 1960s - themed concert to be held on 20th December . As the date approached , Dennis contacted various talent agents from his old days to attend but found that they were all retired , ill or dead and even Rita started to look on the gig in a positive light when she got annoyed at Norris ' s cynical comments . On the night itself , the band arrived with huge speakers which caused Stella Price some qualms but more concerned was Rita who saw Gloria and Dennis getting closer . It was Ritchie though who was impressed with Gloria ' s drive and praised her for the Facebook page she had set up promoting the evening , causing Dennis to feel excluded . The set went well with Ritchie in his element on the makeshift stage playing to a packed bistro . Although Rita hoped the event would get the impresario urge out of Dennis ' s system , Gloria had other plans and suggested they set up a sideline between them , promoting bands . The following January , Ritchie was contacted again to see if he would be interested in doing another gig . After a few weeks , he appeared in The Kabin asking for a meeting to discuss details and insisting that Gloria joined them , again riling Rita . Dennis was getting ambitious , talking about permanent staff and an office for their agency , further troubling his wife . Someone else getting concerned was Stella who overheard talk about Dennis and Gloria and told her mother that although it was fine to have Ritchie paying her attention , Dennis was out of bounds . The second gig was at the salubrious venue of the Hyde Working Men ' s Club and even worse was the trip there in the group ' s transit van with Gloria stuck in the back with Dennis , some of the band and their equipment . Although the appearance went down well , Dennis was hurt when Ritchie and Gloria went off on their own afterwards for a drink , with Gloria ' s barbed comments about getting home to his cocoa ringing in his ears . After his suggestions for the next gig were ignored and feeling desperate not to be seen as " past it " , Dennis changed his image with a leather jacket and greased - back hair which invited nothing but ridicule from those around him , including Ritchie , who along with Gloria continued to exclude Dennis from their work chatter . Moreover , there was a real breach caused between Dennis and Rita when she accused Gloria of being a cheap money - grabber and Dennis , in turn , accused Rita of being jealous of a woman ten years younger than her . The two split , with Gloria putting Dennis up for the night but when he got in the doldrums , she summoned Ritchie to cheer him up . On his arrival , he told them pair that he had been poached by a management company and was leaving for the airport to fly to Europe . Gloria was livid that their verbal contract was being ignored while Dennis was happy to say goodbye to Ritchie , tired of the turmoil he had introduced into his married life . List of appearances . 2013 2014