Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Katherine Ryan and Bobby Kootstra were childhood sweethearts

Comedian Katherine Ryan has described how her boyfriend fought off an intruder at her home to save a laptop containing the scripts to her new show.

In an Instagram Story, the Canadian showed police at her London home and wrote: "Cool to be robbed tonight by a masked man in our home."

The 36-year-old appealed for help in tracing a ring that was stolen.

Ryan is known for stand-up and panel shows but has written a Netflix sitcom, The Duchess, about a single mother.

She previously told Radio Times that writing the series "was a challenge because I'm not a screenwriter who's experienced, I don't know the rules".

And in an Instagram clip posted at the weekend, she pointed out blood on the laptop and told followers: "This is why I love Bobby K [Kootstra]. He got in a fight and wrestled back my Netflix series, all my scripts."

Kootstra was the childhood sweetheart with whom Ryan was reportedly reunited after two decades during a chance meeting while filming for BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? in her hometown of Sarnia, west of Toronto.

She has been living in London for more than a decade and has a young daughter she regularly mentions in her comedy routines.

In another post after the burglary, Ryan suggested she was finding it hard to sleep.

"That's fine, I never liked sleeping anyway," she said.

She joked she would get a German shepherd after her small dogs were "asleep at the wheel" during the incident.

Ryan is a regular performer on Netflix, having filmed stand-up specials In Trouble and Glitter Room and appeared alongside Jimmy Carr in The Fix.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Katharine Ryan explains how she fell into comedy after working in Hooters

She also teamed up with Carr for a reboot of Your Face or Mine? on Comedy Central.

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