Mel Smith

Melvin Kenneth "Mel" Smith (3 December 1952 – 19 July 2013) was an English comedian, writer, film director, producer and actor. He was most famous for his work on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Griff Rhys Jones. Smith and Jones founded Talkback, which grew to be one of the UK's largest producers of TV comedy and light entertainment programming.

Early life

Smith's father, Kenneth, was born in Tow Law, County Durham, and worked at a coal mine during the Second World War looking after the pit ponies. After the war he moved to London, and married Smith's mother, whose parents owned agreengrocer's store in Chiswick, West London. When the government legalised high street betting, he turned the shop into the first betting shop in Chiswick.

Smith was born and brought up in Chiswick, over the fish and chip shop. He was educated at Hogarth Primary School, Chiswick and at Latymer Upper School, an independent school in Hammersmith. He went on to study experimental psychology at New College, Oxford.

Career

While at Oxford University he produced The Tempest, and this led to his joining the Royal Court Theatre production team in London, and then Bristol Old Vic. He was also associate director of Sheffield's Crucible Theatre for two years. Later, he directed a theatre production of "Not in Front of the Audience".

Also at Oxford, he performed at the Edinburgh Fringe with the Oxford University Dramatic Society. One year they shared a venue with the Cambridge Footlights, directed by John Lloyd. Lloyd later got the opportunity to develop the idea that became the satirical BBC television series Not the Nine O'clock News. Lloyd rang Smith to ask if he wanted to do it, and Smith agreed for £100 an episode. 

This was followed briefly by Smith and Goody (with Bob Goody) and then the comedy sketch series Alas Smith and Jones, co-starring Griff Rhys Jones, its title being a pun on the name of the American TV series Alias Smith and Jones. He also starred as property dealer Tom Craig in ITV drama Muck and Brass, and guest starred on The Goodies episode Animals. In 1989, he played the title role in the sitcom Colin's Sandwich, playing a British Rail employee with aspirations to be a writer.

In 1981, Smith and Griff Rhys Jones founded TalkBack Productions, a company that has produced many of the most significant British comedy shows of the past two decades, including Smack the Pony, Da Ali G Show, I'm Alan Partridge and Big Train. In 2000, the company was sold to Pearson for £62 million.

Smith co-wrote and took the lead role in the space comedy Morons from Outer Space but the film failed to make much impact. His next cinema effort was better received as director of The Tall Guy, giving Emma Thompson a major screen role. Perhaps his best-known film in America is Brain Donors, the 1992 update of the comedy classic A Night at the Opera, starring Smith as a cheeky, opportunistic cab driver turned ballet promoter. Paramount Pictures considered this film the outstanding comedy of the year, but when the producers left Paramount for another studio, Paramount withdrew its support for the film.

In 1987, he recorded a single with Kim Wilde for Comic Relief: a cover of the Christmas song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" with some extra comedy lines written by Smith and Jones. It reached number three in the UK charts. He appeared in The Princess Bride as the Albino.

Smith and Jones were reunited in 2005 for a review/revival of their earlier TV series in The Smith And Jones Sketchbook. Smith joked that "Obviously, Griff's got more money than me so he came to work in a Rolls Royce and I came on a bicycle. But it was great fun to do and we are firmly committed to doing something new together, because you don't chuck that sort of chemistry away. Of course, I'll have to pretend I like "Restoration".

In August 2006 Smith returned to the theatre stage after some 20 years, appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in Allegiance, Irish journalist and author Mary Kenny's play about Churchill's encounter with the Irish nationalist leader Michael Collins in 1921. The play initially caused some controversy, with Smith proposing to flout the Scottish ban on smoking in public places, but the scene was quickly adapted after gaining the required amount of publicity. The play was directed by Brian Gilbert and produced by Daniel Jewel.

In autumn 2006, Smith starred opposite Belinda Lang in a tour of a new comedy An Hour and a Half Late by French playwright Gérald Sibleyras, which was adapted by Smith. He then directed a West End revival of Charley's Aunt starring Stephen Tompkinson. From October 2007 to January 2008 he played the role of Wilbur Turnblad in the London production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

Personal life

Smith was married to Pam, a former model who grew up in Easington and Durham, and the couple had houses in St John's Wood(backing onto Lord's Cricket Ground), and Little Haseley, Oxfordshire (a Grade II listed barn conversion, sold in 2011). Smith was a lifelong fan of Rolls-Royce cars.

Health

Smith was hospitalised in 1999 with stomach ulcers, after admitting that he was consuming more than 50 Nurofen Plus tablets a day. This is a mixture of ibuprofen and codeine, the latter is an opiate known to be addictive which should not be taken for more than three days, and he later admitted to a growing addiction to the pills. Smith said at the time that the pressures of film work were a contributing factor, along with a desperate need to ease the pain caused by gout. Partly as a result, he agreed to sell Talkback Productions. On 31 December 2008, Smith appeared on Celebrity Mastermind whilst suffering from severe pharyngitis.

Death

On the morning of 19 July 2013, London Ambulance Service was called to his home in north-west London. Smith was confirmed dead by the ambulance crew, with a later post-mortem confirming death from a heart attack.

Television shows

Performer

• Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979)
• Smith and Goody (1980)
• Fundamental Frolics (1981)
• Alas Smith and Jones (1982)
• Weekend In Wallop (1984)
• Comedians Do It On Stage (1986)
• The Home-made Xmas Video (1987)
• The World According To Smith And Jones (1987)
• Colin's Sandwich (1988)
• Smith and Jones (1989)
• Wilt (1989)
• Amnesty International's Big 30 (1991)
• Comic Relief (1991)
• The Night Of Comic Relief (1995)
• A Gala Comedy Hour (Best Of The Prince's Trust) (1996)
• The Smith and Jones Sketchbook (2005)
• The Sittaford Mystery, an episode of Marple (2006)
• Hustle (2006)
• Celebrity Mastermind (2008)
• Rock & Chips (2 episodes, 2010–2011)
• The Ones: Series 1: The One Griff Rhys Jones (2012)
• Dancing on the Edge (2013)

Writer

• Not The Nine O'clock News (1979)
• Smith And Goody (1980)
• Fundamental Frolics (1981)
• Alas Smith And Jones (1982)
• Weekend In Wallop (1984)
• Comedians Do It On Stage (1986)
• Smith And Jones (1989)
• Amnesty International's Big 30 (1991)
• A Gala Comedy Hour (Best Of The Prince's Trust) (1996)

Producer

• Too Much Sun (2000)

Filmography

Director

• The Tall Guy (1989)
• Radioland Murders (1994)
• Bean (1997)
• High Heels and Low Lifes (2001)
• Blackball (2003)

Actor

• Babylon (1980) - Alan
• Bullshot (1983) - Crouch
• Slayground (1983) - Terry Abbatt
• Minder (1984) - Cyril Ash
• Restless Natives (1985) - Pyle
• The Supergrass (1985)
• Morons from Outer Space (1985) - Bernard; also co-wrote the script with Griff Rhys Jones
• National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) - London Hotel Receptionist
• The Princess Bride (1987) - The Albino
• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1988) - Mr. Grimshaw
• Wilt (from a novel by Tom Sharpe) (1989) - Inspector Flint
• Father Christmas (1991) - Father Christmas
• Brain Donors (aka Lame Ducks) (1992) - Rocco Melonchek
• Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (1996) - Sir Toby Belch