Ryecart was born in Warwick, Warwickshire. His first West End appearance was in
Bernard Shaw's
Candida at the
Albery Theatre, playing the young poet Marchbanks opposite
Deborah Kerr, directed by
Michael Blakemore. Among a string of fine reviews, Bernard Levin in the
Sunday Times described his performance as "supernova" and that he had not seen "such a talent in embryo since the young
Richard Burton". Ryecart has continued working in theatre, television and film (his last film role
Lord Wigram in ''
The King's Speech) with lead roles in the classics of Shaw, Sheridan, and Shakespeare to light comedies, TV situation comedy, thrillers and musicals. Among his notable credits in London are Jack Absolute in The Rivals'', with
Michael Hordern as his father and
Geraldine McEwan as Mrs Malaprop, and Lord Goring in
Peter Hall's
An Ideal Husband. He has acted on many British television shows since the mid-1970s including
Lillie,
Romeo and Juliet,
The Professionals,
Minder (Series 7 episode 5),
Rumpole of the Bailey,
Lovejoy,
Coming Home and
Holby City. In 1986 he appeared in the
Doctor Who serial
The Trial of a Time Lord in the
Mindwarp segment. He was one of the lead characters in the BBC TV comedy series
The High Life playing Captain Hilary Duff. He played Hugo Latimer in the BBC series
Trainer. In 1996 he appeared in ''
Agatha Christie's Poirot episode, "Dumb Witness" as Charles, returning to the series in 2013 as Sir Anthony Morgan in "The Labours of Hercules". In 1996 he worked for the BBC in My Son My Son
and in 1997 was in the Dalziel & Pascoe episode Ruling Passion
. He played Mr. Crane-Bolder in Catherine Cookson’s Rag Nymph
a TV Mini-Series (1997). He appeared in Midsomer Murders
"The Night of the Stag" as Anthony Devereux (2011). He has appeared in many mini series for the U.S. He played Sir Hugh Bodrugan in the 2015 BBC series of Poldark. In 2016, he played the role of the Duke of Norfolk in the Netflix series The Crown''. His extensive theatre credits include
The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B by
J P Donleavy in London's West End, which he also produced, first playing Balthazar to Simon Callow's playing Beefy, (who was later replaced by Billy Connolly). Numerous tours include "Donkeys Years", "Rebecca", "Tunes of Glory" and "The Millionairess" opposite
Raquel Welch. He also produced, at the Garrick Theatre London (and later redirected for tour and the Edinburgh Festival 2011) "Jus' like That!" the highly successful affectionate tribute to the great Tommy Cooper, written by John Fisher. His film credits include
A Bridge Too Far (1977),
Silver Dream Racer (1980),
Arthur the King (1985),
Prisoner of Honor (1991),
Parting Shots (1999) and ''
The King's Speech'' (2010). ==Personal life==