RIP Mel Smith

At 3pm today I heard of the sad death of Mel Smith who died from a heart attack aged 60 http://uk.news.yahoo.com/british-comedian-mel-smith-dies-aged-60-134828327.html#umAghsz.  My Mother was a huge fan of Not The Nine O'Clock News and its spin off Alas Smith and Jones so it was always on in our house.  I think I caught up with NTNON at a later date via repeats and DVD, but it was pretty radical for the day and of course, was one of the first things the mighty John Lloyd produced.  ASAJ was quite rude as I recall and I don't think I really understood some of the sketches, but I did like the face to face ramblings the pair used to do which I always thought was a cut above Ronnie Corbett's chair chat in The Two Ronnies (in fact it was probably when I skipped off to the kitchen to fix myself another glass of Rola Cola as there was no time for named brands in my house....)

The last time I saw Mel Smith on the TV was when he featured in an edition of Celebrity Mastermind where he looked like he'd suffered a stroke, but I couldn't find any evidence to back this up online.  Talking of such programmes, I've stopped watching them now because I agree with Frank Skinner's view that it's far too dumbed down and allowing such luminaries such as Myleene Klass to answer questions on Series 3 of Sex and The City is frankly ridiculous, although I did enjoy the comedian and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue stalwart Tony Hawks' choice of topic: Tony Hawk: The Skateboarder. My own personal beef with the BBC's Mastermind is that I have now sat through two auditions for the programme with no success.  Darn, I was seriously hoping to rock the intellectual glasses, cord jacket and jeans look on telly too;

Weekend Box Sets and Comedy Script Books

Before I became a mother I was able to spend large portions of my weekend watching my various comedy box sets, but no - I'm not bitter, just a little disappointed, hey ho.  However, these days I have my comedy books to look through and that's always enjoyable, especially when combined with searching stuff on the interweb.  If you were to ask me just how many books about comedy combined with various comedians' autobiographies I wouldn't be able to answer you, but let me tell you, it's a lot - here are two to illustrate my point:

Unsurprisingly I also own quite a few script books - Father Ted, Blackadder, Little Britain, Alan Partridge and The League of Gentlemen to name but a few.  The Father Ted one is my favourite, especially as it give the context and background to all of the episodes including the inspiration for such classics as the Entertaining Father Stone episode - based upon an unwelcome visitor who used to turn up every year at Arthur Matthews' parents' house.  I cannot believe that my personal highlight New Jack City is so detested by Linehan and Matthews, but it takes all sorts I suppose.

Talking of Father Ted - I've just re-read my last post and it's a tiny bit vitriolic to be honest and reminded me of the Christmassy Ted episode where he wins the coveted Golden Cleric award and proclaims a very long revenge tirade aimed at all of the ecclesiastical people who have annoyed him over the years.  Somebody at work asked me why I bought such script books and that they weren't surprised that I did.  Hmm.