Actor Ricky Tomlinson has declared his love for Wrexham and the football club in a hilarious video.

The Royle Family star, who used to live in Wrexham and still has family in the area, said that he had only just “sobered up” following the club’s promotion to League Two.

He said he was “thrilled to bits” that they had won but couldn’t get a ticket to the match, a familiar feeling for many fans as the club continues to grow in popularity.

Ricky even joked that he had helped the club get the promotion! 

He said he is ‘related’ to ‘ex England manager’ Mike Bassett, who is a character he played in the 2001 film Mike Bassett: England Manager in which the boss, who only has experience with lower league clubs is appointed as England manager - and said that he had spoken to him.

He joked that Mike was “with Pele” at the time and added: “He sent me a list of instructions, what to tell the trainer.”

Ricky had originally lived in Queens Park (now Caia Park) before moving to Coedpoeth and mentioned in the video that his son, so sadly passed away, had been a ball boy at Wrexham.

Watch the full video here:

On the promotion, he said: “My nerves were shattered but I was thrilled to bits when that final whistle went. They’ve been at it a long time, they’ve been plugging away and plugging away and plugging away and finally they’ve got it.”

Ricky’s connections to Wrexham even extend into politics, referencing his arrest and subsequent prison sentence in 1972 during a builders workers’ dispute, where he lead the strike. He said he had been doing it for the “Welsh lads” and the “Wrexham lads” at the time.

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He explained: “The lads made me the leader because I’d had lots of experience about disputes and strikes and stuff like that and they made me the leader and I went to jail. I had two years imprisonment.”

He added that they “did their duty on the picket line” and during his sentence he would end up in solitary confinement for not working and was hospitalised after a 31 day hunger strike.

Despite the experience, he said he had lots of support from the Wrexham lads, and still goes to Wrexham at least once a week.

He said: “I’ve got lots and lots of love and happy memories of Wrexham so all the best.”

Of course, Ricky also supports local rivalries.

He said: “I feel awful sorry for Chester, living in the shadows of Liverpool, Manchester City, Wrexham, Connah’s Quay Nomads, and the Turf have got a football team, they even live in the shadow of them.”

In true Ricky fashion, he added: “Chester my a***”