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;