0:00:02 > 0:00:04All right, shut up! Now, listen to me.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11In 1979, a charismatic young actor sauntered onto our TV screens.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15Rotund, long-haired, he seemed to specialise in down-trodden,
0:00:15 > 0:00:17seedy lowlifes.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19All right. I never forget a face.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21Look at me.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Mel's face has that... Even though there's something which can be
0:00:24 > 0:00:27quite pompous about it and quite sort of haughty,
0:00:27 > 0:00:31you know, bombastic, he, er...it's a downtrodden face.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35But it was in the ground-breaking sketch show Not The Nine O'Clock News
0:00:35 > 0:00:40that Mel Smith emerged as one of TV's most unique comic talents.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Game on.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47'So it's Fat Belly to go first. And it's a good start.
0:00:50 > 0:00:51'Double vodka.'
0:00:51 > 0:00:57He found a very normal, relaxed thing in the biggest of characters.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00OPERATIC SINGING
0:01:02 > 0:01:03Wank.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10Mel, who died aged 60 earlier this year, was many things.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13He was a theatre and film director, a businessman,
0:01:13 > 0:01:17an obsessive gambler, a racehorse owner and a bon viveur.
0:01:17 > 0:01:22Mel always looked famous and rich and successful long before he was.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26But most of all, Mel was the face that changed comic acting
0:01:26 > 0:01:27for a generation.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51Air safety. In new regulations put into force today,
0:01:51 > 0:01:55the Federal Aviation Authority have withdrawn 20% of all aeroplanes
0:01:55 > 0:01:57and put them out to stud.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03Not The Nine O'Clock News was the brainchild of
0:02:03 > 0:02:07current-affairs producer Sean Hardie and comedy producer John Lloyd.
0:02:07 > 0:02:08Just two inside, please.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13I set out with Sean to go and cast the thing and then I
0:02:13 > 0:02:16found Mel in a pub in Chiswick. I said, "I've got this show,
0:02:16 > 0:02:20"it's six shows, it's a blank canvas, do you want to be in it?"
0:02:20 > 0:02:24And, um, we had a couple of pints, got on rather well.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27He said, "Well, I can't do it actually, I'm busy at the moment."
0:02:27 > 0:02:29So he wasn't in what would have been the first series,
0:02:29 > 0:02:32and became known as the pilot, cos it was... Not The Nine O'Clock News
0:02:32 > 0:02:35was cancelled because of the general election of 1979.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Eyes down for a full house.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42On its own, number 1.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47Two fat antelopes, 22.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52Mel eventually signed up for the first series proper
0:02:52 > 0:02:53of Not The Nine O'Clock News.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58Two rather plump antelopes, nine.
0:02:58 > 0:02:59By the second series,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03the familiar award-winning line-up had been established.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05I used to write all the billings for the Radio Times and we tried
0:03:05 > 0:03:08to break all the rules with the billings as much as anything else.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11My favourite one was the cast of it, Not The Nine O'Clock News,
0:03:11 > 0:03:16and it said, um, "The rubbery one - Rowan Atkinson,
0:03:16 > 0:03:18"the fat one - Mel Smith,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22"the girl - Pamela Stephenson, and the other one - Griff Rhys Jones."
0:03:22 > 0:03:25It sort of went into a niche, very difficult to imagine
0:03:25 > 0:03:27when we look at comedy now,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31but most of the practitioners of comedy at that time were over 50.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise felt like another generation,
0:03:34 > 0:03:36like another world,
0:03:36 > 0:03:39and certainly we weren't going into that world,
0:03:39 > 0:03:41we weren't part of that generation.
0:03:41 > 0:03:42- # With a bum...- Tit.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45# How's your father, tiddly-eye.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47# ..All day just crawling up through the grass
0:03:47 > 0:03:50# Thistles in my hair and bracken up me anus
0:03:50 > 0:03:52# I'm thrilled to bits if I see a pair of tits
0:03:52 > 0:03:55# And I love to watch the sun go down
0:03:55 > 0:03:58# Over China, over China over China town. #
0:03:58 > 0:04:00In Not The Nine O'clock News we wanted to reflect
0:04:00 > 0:04:05the landscape of the street and the world in which we actually lived.
0:04:05 > 0:04:06Come on, there's people waiting.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18Not The Nine O'Clock News was in a sense the comedy equivalent of punk.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21It was roughly the same era so it was saying, you know, goodbye
0:04:21 > 0:04:25to all that and here's something new and right for a modern generation.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28# I go up west every night
0:04:28 > 0:04:31# Go down to the pub and look for a fight
0:04:31 > 0:04:34# I have ten lagers then I have ten more
0:04:34 > 0:04:37# Then I jump up and down and I'm sick on the floor. #
0:04:37 > 0:04:38# Come on, you
0:04:38 > 0:04:40# Cos your hands are cold
0:04:40 > 0:04:41# Come on, you
0:04:41 > 0:04:43# Cos you're far too old
0:04:43 > 0:04:44# Come on, you
0:04:44 > 0:04:46# Cos you're a stupid old straight
0:04:46 > 0:04:49# Go, go, go, go hate, hate, hate, hate. #
0:04:49 > 0:04:52We were really on the bounce from Monty Python.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56I mean, they were the heroes of everybody in my generation,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59and we didn't think we could do what they did, so we decided to do
0:04:59 > 0:05:01something completely different,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04which was to do something very low-key, something realistic,
0:05:04 > 0:05:08and Mel was the perfect person to do low-key.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10I'm sorry, John, I'm sorry, whatever you say,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13this film is a highly distasteful one.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16- Have people forgotten how Monty Python suffered for us?- I know.
0:05:16 > 0:05:21How often the sketches failed? I mean, these men died for us.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23- Frequently.- I know.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27He brought such a self-confidence that he didn't have to act up,
0:05:27 > 0:05:28he wanted to act out.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31Everything was... Everything was casual.
0:05:31 > 0:05:36I think modern Christians should have a bit less of the, "Get thee behind me, Satan,"
0:05:36 > 0:05:39and more of the, "Come in, me old mate, and have a cup of tea."
0:05:39 > 0:05:41Hello, John.
0:05:41 > 0:05:46Because he came from a straight acting, serious directing
0:05:46 > 0:05:49background, that's where you get that amazing flat acting style
0:05:49 > 0:05:52that started really with Not The Nine O'Clock News and goes
0:05:52 > 0:05:55all the way through modern alternative comedy of that...
0:05:55 > 0:05:59If you turn the sound down you can't tell somebody's trying to be funny, you know.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01That's Mel's idea. Nobody else's.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05He was always a very relaxed, capable, good,
0:06:05 > 0:06:07believable, unshowy actor.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10We're going to take a look at origami, aren't we, Rowan?
0:06:10 > 0:06:11That's right, Mel,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14which is the ancient Japanese art of paper folding.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18His style is so simple and so sort of unpretentious
0:06:18 > 0:06:21and so effortless, really.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25Mel's performance tone and style. And it was something that
0:06:25 > 0:06:29I suppose I tried to emulate a little.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32And actually found very interesting and very engaging.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35And I remember a lot of the sketches that we did together,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39like the origami sketch, in which we were being very flat
0:06:39 > 0:06:42and very sort of naturalistic to camera, which is something
0:06:42 > 0:06:43that I'd never done,
0:06:43 > 0:06:48because even then I tended to do characters that were rather extreme.
0:06:48 > 0:06:49You can do this on your own
0:06:49 > 0:06:52but if there are two of you then it will probably help.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54And we just have a pull there.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58That's it, that's it. Now...
0:06:58 > 0:07:03And you see, now there we have a very nice hat.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09Here's a...
0:07:09 > 0:07:10Here's a little bracelet.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15And here we have a nice pair of earrings.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20- And of course the moustache. - The moustache.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29He's sort of daring you to say, "Yeah, you're not funny, you're
0:07:29 > 0:07:32"being completely silly." "No, I really mean this, I'm a proper
0:07:32 > 0:07:35"children's television presenter and this hat is really good."
0:07:35 > 0:07:37He dares you to contradict him.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39Twins, doubles, lookalikes.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42In the studio now are two men who will tell us what it is like
0:07:42 > 0:07:46to suffer the pain and heartache of being identical twins.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51The thing about Mel is that
0:07:51 > 0:07:56he found a very normal, relaxed thing in the biggest of characters.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00So if he was playing a vicar or a bishop or a man who lives with
0:08:00 > 0:08:04a gorilla, you would have all the little sort of tensions of normal
0:08:04 > 0:08:07conversation and normal behaviour, and that's what made it so funny.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11Professor, can Gerald really speak as we would understand it?
0:08:11 > 0:08:14Oh, yes, he can speak a few actual words.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18Of course, it was extremely difficult to get him even to this stage.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22When I first... When I first captured Gerald in the Congo, I...
0:08:22 > 0:08:24'67, I think it was.
0:08:24 > 0:08:25'68.
0:08:27 > 0:08:28'68.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33With Mel, I felt this wonderful sort of peace in performance,
0:08:33 > 0:08:37where you didn't have to do much and you could just be very flat
0:08:37 > 0:08:42and tonal in his way. And it was something that I really enjoyed.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44I had to do a lot of work with him on a one-to-one basis.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47If I might just butt in at this point,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50I think I should point out that I have done a considerable
0:08:50 > 0:08:53amount of work on this project myself, and if I may say so,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56your teaching methods do leave a bit to be desired.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59- That's a bit ungrateful, isn't it? - And your diction, for instance...
0:08:59 > 0:09:02I'm sorry, can I put this into some sort of perspective?
0:09:02 > 0:09:06When I caught Gerald in '68, he was completely wild.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08Wild? I was absolutely livid.
0:09:11 > 0:09:18I think I wrote a sketch about a man and a talking gorilla, and a lot of
0:09:18 > 0:09:27the deep, um, er, homosexual subtext was added by Mel and Rowan and John.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30How has Gerald reacted to being separated from his family?
0:09:30 > 0:09:32Well, to begin with, Gerald did make various attempts
0:09:32 > 0:09:35to contact his old flange of gorillas.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37It is a whoop, Professor, it is a whoop of gorillas.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39It is a flange of baboons, for God's sake.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42He sent them the occasional letter but I couldn't really see the point.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45I mean, they either ate them or wiped their bottoms on them.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47Look, look, I know you've never got on with my mother.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50Well, she didn't exactly like me, did she?
0:09:50 > 0:09:53- She got on perfectly well with David Attenborough.- David Attenborough!
0:09:53 > 0:09:55All I ever hear is David bloody Attenborough.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59- Let's leave Dave out of this, shall we?- Oh, shut up and have a banana.
0:09:59 > 0:10:00You could cast Mel in anything,
0:10:00 > 0:10:02you know, high comedy, serious drama.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08In 1982, Mel was cast in his first lead role in a TV drama,
0:10:08 > 0:10:12as ruthless property developer Tom Craig in Muck And Brass.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15There's a lot of people owe me in this town, Cyril,
0:10:15 > 0:10:16and you're one of them.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21I'm telling you. I don't give fair dos. I'm going to start digging.
0:10:21 > 0:10:22You're an old man.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26If you want to go out with the brass bands playing,
0:10:26 > 0:10:28and a plaque to your memory in the town-hall toilets,
0:10:28 > 0:10:33you'd better make sure one of those tenders I've got in there gets accepted.
0:10:33 > 0:10:34Do I make myself plain?
0:10:38 > 0:10:40While Mel was filming Muck And Brass,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Not The Nine O'Clock News suddenly ended,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46leaving him and Griff to partner up or face unemployment.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48# Kinda lingers...#
0:10:48 > 0:10:49Kinda lingers, me old mate.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51# Kinda lingers...#
0:10:51 > 0:10:54- Kinda lingers, Pam.- Oh, Griff.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Mel and Griff were the two people who
0:11:01 > 0:11:05looked like mates and they clearly weren't a woman,
0:11:05 > 0:11:07as Pamela Stephenson was.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10I think that was fairly obvious from the get-go.
0:11:10 > 0:11:16And they weren't Rowan, who was sort of his own, you know, mimetic genius.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19They became partners cos Rowan sacked us all.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Simple as that. You know, they thought they were out of a job.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25They definitely thought, the game's up, we'll never work again.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29After Not The Nine O'Clock News finished,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Mel and Griff pitched an idea for a two-man show.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35Their audition piece was featured in a BBC Christmas Special.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42I wrote a sketch about a hospital visitor.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44- I expect you've heard of me.- No.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50- Trevor?- What do you want, Trevor?
0:11:50 > 0:11:52I want for nothing, save your comfort.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54Thank you.
0:11:54 > 0:11:59We of the Brotherhood of St Vitus bring succour to the sick.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04- Are you sick, my friend? - I am, yes.- What's wrong with you?
0:12:06 > 0:12:08'And they said, "Yeah, make a pilot,'
0:12:08 > 0:12:10"off you go."
0:12:10 > 0:12:15So we made a pilot. There were a number of really great sketches
0:12:15 > 0:12:18in it, one of which was two guys on a polar expedition.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23Oh, John, John. Oh, this is it. We are in luck.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31Of course the crevasse is deep to the east.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34If you head west about half a mile over the ridge,
0:12:34 > 0:12:36there's a crossing point.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40We can be at the South Pole in 36 hours. 36 hours, I'm so excited!
0:12:44 > 0:12:46You said you'd be back at 6.30.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51I got caught in a blizzard, John.
0:12:51 > 0:12:57- Caught in a blizzard?- John, we are 17 miles from the South Pole.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00I don't think we need to worry about the niceties of punctuality.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03I'm not worried about the niceties of punctuality.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05I just don't think you should say 6.30
0:13:05 > 0:13:07if you don't mean it, that's all.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09That went quite well, and then we were off.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14And we made the first series of Smith & Jones in about 1983.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16Something around that time.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19- I went down to Harley Street yesterday.- Oh, yeah.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22- Yeah, down where all the clinics are.- Oh.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27- I go down there quite often, actually.- Do you?
0:13:27 > 0:13:30Oh, yeah, to the...you know, the artificial inseminatory.
0:13:30 > 0:13:31LAUGHTER
0:13:33 > 0:13:36Sperm bank, you know.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39Cos they've actually got the biggest collection of sperms
0:13:39 > 0:13:40in the country down there.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45You go down there and have a look at them, do you?
0:13:45 > 0:13:46LAUGHTER
0:13:47 > 0:13:48No, no.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53- I mean, I go to stick some in.- Oh.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57- I'm a donator.- Oh, oh.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02How do you do that, then?
0:14:04 > 0:14:07Right from the first episode of Alas Smith And Jones, Mel and Griff
0:14:07 > 0:14:10performed what would become their signature sketch -
0:14:10 > 0:14:11the head-to-head.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14They were based on work we'd already been doing, funnily enough,
0:14:14 > 0:14:19in advertising, as we set up a radio advertising company called Talkback.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22It was an extremely useful tool for corporate work with the, er...
0:14:22 > 0:14:24you'd drop in the name of the client somewhere,
0:14:24 > 0:14:28and the very fact that these were two slightly ill-informed,
0:14:28 > 0:14:30rather...you know, you could say thick characters,
0:14:30 > 0:14:34meant it was an extremely useful way of conveying information.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37And when we came to do the television show I thought, er,
0:14:37 > 0:14:39let's try this structure.
0:14:39 > 0:14:40Two close-ups of two profiles,
0:14:40 > 0:14:42you know, almost touching each other,
0:14:42 > 0:14:44black background, white shirts.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47It was... It was as radio as you could possibly get on television.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50- I mean, there's a lot of women in the world.- Yeah, right.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54- And a lot of them, for various reasons, they can't get pregnant.- No.
0:14:54 > 0:14:59Because their husbands haven't got it in 'em, see.
0:14:59 > 0:15:00What, not at all?
0:15:01 > 0:15:03- Well, not as much as I have.- No.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06When they stared reading it,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09it became obvious that there were two sorts of stupidity.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12You know, Griff playing a stupid person is very different
0:15:12 > 0:15:14from Mel playing a stupid person.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17And, er, there's something sort of... Even though Griff
0:15:17 > 0:15:21sort of struggles with concepts in his head,
0:15:21 > 0:15:25he actually questions Mel, who's all sort of full of bullshit about blah-blah.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29Do you know it is over 20 years since Sergeant Pepper came out?
0:15:29 > 0:15:34- Is it really?- 20 years.- Dear, oh, dear.- Makes you think, doesn't it? - It does.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37Makes me think I ought to buy it some time.
0:15:37 > 0:15:38You never heard...
0:15:38 > 0:15:41- Oh, it's only the best record ever made.- Is it?
0:15:41 > 0:15:43# It was 20 years ago today
0:15:43 > 0:15:46# Sergeant Pepper taught the band how to play
0:15:46 > 0:15:52# It's going out of date... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. #
0:15:53 > 0:15:57- Sounds marvellous. - Oh, it's brilliant. Brilliant.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01It was necessary for the two characters to sit there
0:16:01 > 0:16:04in sort of blank incomprehension for as long as
0:16:04 > 0:16:08effectively I decided that we could...we could wait,
0:16:08 > 0:16:13and to know that Mel would just go with it and vice versa
0:16:13 > 0:16:16was an absolutely essential quality.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18I was one of the beautiful people.
0:16:18 > 0:16:19LAUGHTER
0:16:29 > 0:16:33- Were you really?- I was, yes. It was a bit before I met you, of course.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35Yeah, I think it must have been.
0:16:35 > 0:16:36LAUGHTER
0:16:36 > 0:16:38I think you believe those guys.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41I think you believe that somewhere in some pub somewhere...
0:16:41 > 0:16:45obviously a very dark, black pub, there are two people,
0:16:45 > 0:16:48who sit down over a pint and talk like that.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52There was an element of the fact
0:16:52 > 0:16:54that Mel did play the, um...
0:16:56 > 0:16:59..the sort of straightforward, you know,
0:16:59 > 0:17:04er, Sun reading, beer swilling,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08easy-going bloke and I played the more...
0:17:11 > 0:17:14..stretched, sort of stressed-out, neurotic character,
0:17:14 > 0:17:17which we did a lot, and that worked quite well for us,
0:17:17 > 0:17:19and it was pretty well true as well.
0:17:19 > 0:17:24We gave you this project, you see, because you had given us
0:17:24 > 0:17:28the impression that you had a major record of construction
0:17:28 > 0:17:30engineering work throughout the world.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33I mean, didn't you get the contract for the Aswan Dam?
0:17:33 > 0:17:35Yeah, we did, yeah. We were all set, raring to go,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38bloody van broke down, didn't it?
0:17:38 > 0:17:40So you've never actually built anything at all, have you?
0:17:40 > 0:17:44- Hold on a minute. We refurbished the entire Taj Mahal.- The Taj Mahal?
0:17:44 > 0:17:48Well, it WAS the Taj Mahal. It's the Laughing Poppadom now, I think.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50Mel could do sort of authority figures
0:17:50 > 0:17:53and the very opposite of authority figures, you know. As you say,
0:17:53 > 0:17:57he could do a police inspector, he could do, you know, a tramp.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01Er, but...but to me it always came across as Mel doing it.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06Gentlemen of the press, I would like to brief you as to the latest
0:18:06 > 0:18:08developments, which are considerable,
0:18:08 > 0:18:12in the hunt for the killer at large in the Suffolk region.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16In the Sussex region.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21Rory had a sort of bead on the way Mel could play
0:18:21 > 0:18:26that Inspector Bribeasy character very well, very well.
0:18:26 > 0:18:32That was a classic sort of Mel... sort of in control of his, er...
0:18:34 > 0:18:36..his...inner stupidity.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40One of the most important clues so far received
0:18:40 > 0:18:42was yesterday at operational headquarters,
0:18:42 > 0:18:47a cassette tape with this letter.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50"Dear, Mr Clever Copper..."
0:18:52 > 0:18:54I think he's referring to me there.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57The idea of a policeman on the beat, or...you know, or a flustered,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00thick copper, that doesn't happen any more.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04I think the police are into PR enough to know that they don't have,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08er, Mel Smith lookalike officers making mistakes in front of the press.
0:19:08 > 0:19:09Sam Block, The Times. >
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Is it true that some of your offices have had a close encounter
0:19:12 > 0:19:13with the Hedgehog?
0:19:25 > 0:19:26Yes.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30Is it in fact true that a senior police officer has spoken
0:19:30 > 0:19:34- to him face-to-face?- Yes. - Then why hasn't he been caught?
0:19:34 > 0:19:35ALL ASK QUESTIONS
0:19:35 > 0:19:38- Look, we couldn't nab him.- Why not?
0:19:38 > 0:19:40Because he's a Mason!
0:19:41 > 0:19:44'I played to the idea that I was the uptight,'
0:19:44 > 0:19:48neurotic one, and Mel was the easy-going, um, er, slob.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51It was very Odd Couple.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55Is the soap up your end, by the way?
0:20:03 > 0:20:06- Pardon. - Is the soap up your end?
0:20:11 > 0:20:12No, I don't think so.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16You see, I know that Mel always wanted to go off and play
0:20:16 > 0:20:18and do the Odd Couple.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23And I resisted it, because I thought it was a bit of a cliche, almost,
0:20:23 > 0:20:26for us to do it. I imagined at some point we'd do it later
0:20:26 > 0:20:28but I don't suppose we ever will do it now.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42What is it, then? I mean, what, what...
0:20:42 > 0:20:45you just don't like touching other men?
0:20:45 > 0:20:49- No, it's not that.- What is it, then? - I just don't like touching you.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54We did the kiss originally as a piece in TV.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56GRIFF GRUNTS
0:21:00 > 0:21:03Everywhere I went people would say how horrible it must have been
0:21:03 > 0:21:08for me kissing Mel, but I... I'm not quite sure why they
0:21:08 > 0:21:13thought it was horrible for me but not horrible for him to kiss me!
0:21:13 > 0:21:17You have got to open up, Griff, open up!
0:21:21 > 0:21:26GRIFF PROTESTS
0:21:26 > 0:21:27So...
0:21:27 > 0:21:31But it was horrible for me to kiss Mel because he ate a lot of curry,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34smoked cigars and drank quite a lot
0:21:34 > 0:21:38and he was quite an aggressive kisser.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40He never held himself back.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48- What did you think? - Taramasalata, wasn't it?- It was.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54We both like the same jokes, we both roar with laughter at the same jokes.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58- Did you have a look at the portfolio?- I had a look at the portfolio.- And...
0:21:58 > 0:22:00Well, I'm obviously very interested.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03It's going to be...
0:22:03 > 0:22:06a very, very interesting new departure for us.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09Do you think we're going to find the money?
0:22:09 > 0:22:12I don't think the finance is any problem in itself
0:22:12 > 0:22:13but I'm just little bit...
0:22:13 > 0:22:19- Would you like to see the menu, sir? - I think Chef knows our order, Henry, thank you.- Wine list?- Er, yes.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23'So however different we were, all our interests were different,'
0:22:23 > 0:22:29but nonetheless if push came to shove, if somebody stuck a fairly
0:22:29 > 0:22:36straightforward joke in front of us, we would find that pretty hilarious.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38HE MURMURS
0:22:41 > 0:22:47- No, no, no!- Just one, just one. - No, no.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51AEROPLANE NOISE
0:22:55 > 0:22:57Will there be anything else, gentlemen?
0:23:00 > 0:23:04- Just the bill, I think, Henry.- Just the bill, sir.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08We must have done about 60 hours, of course that's far too much.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12You know, you are...Marmite.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16You're spreading yourself fairly thin
0:23:16 > 0:23:20but when it worked, and it was there, it was terrific.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23The most extraordinary thing about Britain today is how quickly it's
0:23:23 > 0:23:26- moving towards the classless society. - Yah, because here at the BBC
0:23:26 > 0:23:30it's actually a positive advantage to be working-class,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33- as Mel has found out. Because he is...- I beg your pardon?
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Because he's a working-class man, the salt of the earth, who's...
0:23:36 > 0:23:40Sorry, excuse me just for a second. I'm not working-class.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47- I'm middle-class.- OK, fine.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49Well, if you say so, fine.
0:23:51 > 0:23:52No, it's not...
0:23:52 > 0:23:55nothing to do with "if I say so", Griff. I come from a perfectly...
0:23:55 > 0:23:59- ordinary middle-class family.- Fine, OK, middle-class.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02With the accent on ordinary, I should think.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09Mel Smith was born in London, in 1952.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12His father Ken, who was originally from Country Durham,
0:24:12 > 0:24:14married Mel's mother, Vera,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17and took over her family greengrocer's in West London.
0:24:17 > 0:24:18Mel and his younger sister, Lesley,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22lived with their parents above the family shop in Chiswick.
0:24:22 > 0:24:23When they married,
0:24:23 > 0:24:29Ken had convinced Vera that the way to go forward was to
0:24:29 > 0:24:33change from being a greengrocer to a bookmaker's.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36They started in a modest flat
0:24:36 > 0:24:39then moved up to a nice semidetached house.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41And did very well for themselves.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43His father was quite quiet.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46He wouldn't say anything unless it was worth saying.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Mum was much more gregarious.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53I never met Mel's dad, who I think died before we really got together,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56but Mel's mum, I knew Vera, I knew her very well.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58She was, er...she was fantastic.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02Hugely supportive of Mel, great fun, and liked to laugh.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05- Hold on!- You like this, The Only Way Is Up?- I love it.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07LAUGHTER
0:25:07 > 0:25:10Up, up, up.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13MEL LAUGHS
0:25:13 > 0:25:15Look at your mother, Lesley.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19- Terrible.- She's old.- It's sad, sad to watch.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24It is sad, sad to watch. But she loves it!
0:25:24 > 0:25:27I remember him telling about... him telling me about his mother.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29He'd been very amused by this.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32He'd been round to see her the day before, I think, and she had
0:25:32 > 0:25:35been reading in the Daily Mail about the Loony Left in Lambeth.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39And she said, "Apparently, Mel, if you're a lesbian amputee
0:25:39 > 0:25:42"you can have free hang-gliding lessons.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46She absolutely believed every word of the Daily Mail.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58In 1964, the academically bright Mel
0:25:58 > 0:26:01got into Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09This is the original hall of Latymer Upper.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14And it's used for assemblies and in Mel's time the stage behind us was
0:26:14 > 0:26:19vastly expanded by groups of boys with lights and curtains
0:26:19 > 0:26:23and so it's a much bigger stage, slightly ramshackle.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28His enthusiasm for theatre and acting seemed to...
0:26:28 > 0:26:31spring fully formed from nowhere.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35He showed an absolute remarkable maturity,
0:26:35 > 0:26:39and as a 17-year-old gave a marvellous portrayal
0:26:39 > 0:26:40as Falstaff.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44Mel had the audience eating out of his hand really
0:26:44 > 0:26:47in the way he spoke his lines.
0:26:47 > 0:26:52And how he was calm and gentle and then bashing away, shouting
0:26:52 > 0:26:55and screaming and doing all sorts of Nine O'Clock News type things
0:26:55 > 0:27:00at times. It's a very moving play, that,
0:27:00 > 0:27:03and people said, "That's the making of an actor."
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Every year he was the captain of the year's team,
0:27:13 > 0:27:17all the way from the second form right up to the sixth form, and
0:27:17 > 0:27:21at the sixth-form level he was the captain of the school First XV.
0:27:21 > 0:27:26He formed odd quirky clubs. He formed the Latymer Walking Society.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30That was a group that, at lunchtime, walked around the school
0:27:30 > 0:27:33very, very quickly, for no other reason
0:27:33 > 0:27:36than it seemed like a good idea at the time.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Latymer meant a great deal to Mel.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44It allowed him to expand, it allowed him in a sense to be naughty,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47perhaps sometimes encouraged him to be naughty.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49It made him work very hard.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59In 1971, Mel won a place to study experimental psychology
0:27:59 > 0:28:00at New College, Oxford.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04# All right, everybody
0:28:04 > 0:28:08# Let your hair down
0:28:08 > 0:28:10# Want to see everybody get up off their seat
0:28:10 > 0:28:12# Clap your hands, stamp your feet
0:28:12 > 0:28:13# Get down, get with it
0:28:13 > 0:28:16# I said get down, get with it... #
0:28:16 > 0:28:18For a lot of people, including me,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21you go to university and it's the first time you're
0:28:21 > 0:28:24sort of independent, when you're finding your way around the world.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29And Mel looked like a man who absolutely knew his way around the world and back again.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32# I said get down and get with it
0:28:32 > 0:28:36# It's been a long, long time... #
0:28:36 > 0:28:40We're in the King's Arms, which is a stone's throw
0:28:40 > 0:28:44from where Mel and I used to live, and it's where we came
0:28:44 > 0:28:46most mornings if we weren't off to the races.
0:28:46 > 0:28:48He was a hugely prodigious drinker.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52People who were interested in the theatre used to come in here
0:28:52 > 0:28:54and Mel would just basically hold court.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04He was a man who did lots of productions.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08He also appeared in quite a few things.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12He was a man who rose very quickly within the ranks.
0:29:12 > 0:29:17MUSIC: "I'm Free" by The Who
0:29:21 > 0:29:23Numbers 6 and 7 New College Lane.
0:29:23 > 0:29:28As you can see, it's where Edmund Halley had his observatory.
0:29:28 > 0:29:33And I used to have the rooms on this side,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36going in this entrance, and Mel had the rooms on this side.
0:29:36 > 0:29:42I came back one night and there was a party going on next door,
0:29:42 > 0:29:44and they were playing Tommy.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48I pretty soon realised it was actually my copy of Tommy.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50They'd broken into my rooms and pinched my record
0:29:50 > 0:29:55so I stormed round next door in a high state of pique,
0:29:55 > 0:29:59and hammered on the door, and Mel opened the door,
0:29:59 > 0:30:03thrust a large gin and tonic into my hand, and that was it.
0:30:03 > 0:30:05Friends for life, really.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15Right, so this was Mel's room.
0:30:15 > 0:30:20My room was behind dividing doors here, which have since been plastered over.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24Bed in the same position. Can't remember where the desk was.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26Nice to see a bottle of Pimm's on the mantelpiece.
0:30:26 > 0:30:31We used to spend most of our time in my room because it's rather bigger than this room.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34I think he liked to make a mess in my patch rather than his own.
0:30:36 > 0:30:41We're talking about 41 years ago, 42 years ago I met Mel.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47A huge sense of sadness that I'm not going to see him any more.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49Huge.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03I think his attendance record was appalling.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07I don't think the experimental psychology labs had seen much of him.
0:31:07 > 0:31:12And they asked him if he was going to...
0:31:12 > 0:31:16put his head down and work for his finals,
0:31:16 > 0:31:20or whether he was going to spend all his time directing and acting.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23And I think he chose the latter.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32In 1973, having decided not to complete his degree at Oxford,
0:31:32 > 0:31:35Mel returned to London to take up a job
0:31:35 > 0:31:38as assistant director at the Royal Court Theatre.
0:31:38 > 0:31:39I actually worked on Not I here,
0:31:39 > 0:31:43which is a 20-minute monologue written by Samuel Beckett,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46coming from a mouth very, very tightly lit, stage left.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50Stage right, there's this cloaked figure, so dimly lit
0:31:50 > 0:31:52that people often didn't notice he was there.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56Cloak and cowl, who at about three occasions during the play
0:31:56 > 0:31:58had to go like this, you see.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01Two or three times in the show, like this.
0:32:01 > 0:32:06I was assistant director on the show and we spent the whole day auditioning people
0:32:06 > 0:32:09for the part of the guy in the cloak. It was unbelievable.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13On the audition, we had a queue of really quite good actors coming in,
0:32:13 > 0:32:16and I used to sit stage left doing the whole monologue.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19SHOUTS UNINTELLIGIBLY
0:32:19 > 0:32:22Like that, while these actors used to stand there going...
0:32:24 > 0:32:27It was the most embarrassing thing I'd ever done in my whole life.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34During the mid-'70s, Mel continued to take assistant directing jobs
0:32:34 > 0:32:39in theatres around the country until he met up with actor Bob Goody.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42For the next few years, they wrote and performed several productions together,
0:32:42 > 0:32:44including 'Ave You 'Eard The One About Joey Baker
0:32:44 > 0:32:48and The Gambler, which was later revived in the West End.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54By 1979, they'd attracted the attention of TV.
0:32:54 > 0:32:55# Wotcha, Bob.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57# Wotcha, Mel
0:32:57 > 0:32:59# Wotcha been up to?
0:32:59 > 0:33:01# Can't you tell? #
0:33:01 > 0:33:04We came up with this sort of strange sketch show
0:33:04 > 0:33:08where we played Mel and Bob and, um, Mel was the slightly serious one.
0:33:08 > 0:33:10The sort of round, serious one.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13I was the tall, crazy one who was desperate about books,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17a bit like a grown-up child, and we lived in a television studio
0:33:17 > 0:33:21and we shared a big double bed, a bit like Morecambe and Wise.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24Got some dodgy mail but we got away with it.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26Bob! Get back in the bed!
0:33:26 > 0:33:28We did a Blue Peter send-up every week,
0:33:28 > 0:33:31which I think was called Let's Look At A Book.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34What you were about to witness was television at its most terrifying.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37Note the sickly grin, the glazed expression and the cuddly stuffed Labrador.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40- Don't go on at me, Fatso! - Oh, come on, Bob.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44Mel, you're rotten, you are! It's a popular bit of the programme.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48I've been flooded with letters saying how exciting and informative
0:33:48 > 0:33:50and clever I am.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52Bob, 17 postcards from your Auntie Dot all saying,
0:33:52 > 0:33:56"keep up the good work" hardly puts you in the superstar bracket.
0:33:56 > 0:34:01And we also did a Christmas special.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04Smith And Goody On Ice, which was...
0:34:04 > 0:34:06which was hysterical.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10- Hi, Merry Christmas! - Merry Christmas!
0:34:10 > 0:34:11To all of those of you watching,
0:34:11 > 0:34:15all those in France and certain bits of Canada, Bon Noel!
0:34:15 > 0:34:19I could have done more stuff with Mel, and I'd love to have done,
0:34:19 > 0:34:22but sketch comedy wasn't... I did it with Smith and Goody,
0:34:22 > 0:34:25but it wasn't my great forte. I'm more of an actor...
0:34:25 > 0:34:28Sort of a comic actor but not a sketch comedian.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31But once Not The Nine O'Clock News took off,
0:34:31 > 0:34:34Mel could do it all, really.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37So, yeah, it was a shame, but, never...
0:34:37 > 0:34:39That's the way it goes.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42Thanks, mate. Thanks, pal. See you, all right?
0:34:47 > 0:34:49Extraordinary.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52I wrote a play around the same time, called American Days,
0:34:52 > 0:34:55which needed the part of an ageing rock star.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58On the last night of the play, he said he was about
0:34:58 > 0:35:01to do this show called Not The Nine O'Clock News.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04He said, "I have no idea if it's going to last but I do know,"
0:35:04 > 0:35:07he said, "Stephen, that I'm going to be world famous."
0:35:07 > 0:35:09And I looked at him somewhat doubtfully,
0:35:09 > 0:35:13cos there was this large man that was basically a character actor
0:35:13 > 0:35:17and sometime theatre director, and said, "But of course, Mel."
0:35:17 > 0:35:21Um, and then within a year or so he was very, very famous.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29In 1979, Mel put theatre and children's television to one side
0:35:29 > 0:35:33and began his rise to stardom in Not The Nine O'Clock News.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37- SWEDISH ACCENTS: Good afternoon. - Can I help you, sir?
0:35:37 > 0:35:39I would like some deodorant, please.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42Ball or aerosol?
0:35:42 > 0:35:46Neither, I want it for my armpits.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50During the '80s, Not The Nine O'Clock News and then Alas Smith And Jones
0:35:50 > 0:35:53projected Mel to the top of the comedy A-list.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57At the same time, behind the camera, he and Griff started
0:35:57 > 0:36:02what was to become the blueprint for independent television production companies, Talkback.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06Mel and Griff started Talkback with a lot of foresight, really.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09They saw that by taking their destiny into their own hands
0:36:09 > 0:36:12and creating a production company they could, you know,
0:36:12 > 0:36:15control their future and not just, as it were,
0:36:15 > 0:36:18be working for the broadcasters.
0:36:18 > 0:36:20So we had a pinball machine, we had a pool table,
0:36:20 > 0:36:23and gradually we would then start to be successful,
0:36:23 > 0:36:27and the first thing that happened when we got successful was somebody would arrive
0:36:27 > 0:36:29and say we've got to get rid of the pool table,
0:36:29 > 0:36:31because we need to put a desk in there for somebody to work,
0:36:31 > 0:36:34so we'd say goodbye. And then we'd move to bigger offices
0:36:34 > 0:36:36and we'd buy another pool table,
0:36:36 > 0:36:38and a jukebox and a couple of pinball tables,
0:36:38 > 0:36:41and they'd last for about six months and then Peter Fincham would say,
0:36:41 > 0:36:44"I don't think we can have all this stuff around the office.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46"We've got to get rid of it." So it would all go.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49Their level of involvement fluctuated.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52Griff's was greater than Mel's. Griff was a great one for bounding
0:36:52 > 0:36:55into the office at nine o'clock on a Monday morning,
0:36:55 > 0:36:57and saying we need to do this and we must to that,
0:36:57 > 0:37:00and he had a grand plan, as it were, to take over the world.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03And Mel was terribly happy to sit in the background, kind of.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06My image of him, he would always be puffing on a cigar.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09So whatever he said, you could see through a kind of...
0:37:09 > 0:37:11or hear through a haze of cigar smoke.
0:37:11 > 0:37:13Mel kept meeting people in pubs, that was one thing he'd do.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16He'd come back and say, "I've met this guy in a pub
0:37:16 > 0:37:19"and he's got a great idea," and we'd sit down
0:37:19 > 0:37:23and find ourselves having to be in bed slightly with this man in a pub.
0:37:23 > 0:37:24Time now, ladies and gentlemen.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26Time now, drink up, would you please?
0:37:26 > 0:37:28Let's have your glasses.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32- George. - Yes.
0:37:32 > 0:37:37I'm letting a few of the regulars stay behind for an after-hours session. Know what I mean?
0:37:37 > 0:37:40- Yeah, right.- Yeah.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43So would you mind drinking up and pissing off?
0:37:44 > 0:37:48The spirit of Talkback and what led Talkback to making lots
0:37:48 > 0:37:52of great comedy programmes through the '90s for the likes of, you know,
0:37:52 > 0:37:55Steve Coogan and Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris,
0:37:55 > 0:37:58people like that, it all comes from Mel and Griff.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01And it all comes from "Let's create a company
0:38:01 > 0:38:04"that's a little bit of an anti-company."
0:38:04 > 0:38:08Mel and I had a sort of idea that what you did was you had
0:38:08 > 0:38:10a lot of lunch. Lot of lunch.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12Lunch was very, very important in our day.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16We'd arrive just before lunch and then we'd go for lunch.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20I think it's fair to say that Griff and Mel had very differing...
0:38:20 > 0:38:23leisure pursuits, extracurricular activities.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25Griff would put in a very hard day's work,
0:38:25 > 0:38:28and his way to relax was immediately go and do another hard day's work,
0:38:28 > 0:38:30straightaway, on something different.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34Whereas Mel, I think, used his leisure time very, very productively.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37I think he put a lot of energy into relaxing.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39And that's one of his great joys.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42I'd bring along a bottle of vodka or something and we'd sit
0:38:42 > 0:38:43and play poker, one on one.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46And I remember this one night we really got into playing poker
0:38:46 > 0:38:51one on one and about £150 was going back and forth between us.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56And about five in the morning he went, "Oh."
0:38:56 > 0:38:59He said, "I've just remembered." I said, "What?"
0:38:59 > 0:39:01Absolutely paralytic by this point,
0:39:01 > 0:39:04he said, "I'm on breakfast television this morning."
0:39:04 > 0:39:05I said, "You're kidding me!"
0:39:05 > 0:39:08He looked out the window and said, "There's the car waiting for me."
0:39:08 > 0:39:12I said, "You can't go on breakfast television in this state!"
0:39:12 > 0:39:15He said, "You're absolutely right, can I borrow your shirt?"
0:39:15 > 0:39:17Our guest reviewer of the papers
0:39:17 > 0:39:19is Mel Smith of Not The Nine O'Clock News fame,
0:39:19 > 0:39:23who's just taken over the part of Charley's Aunt from Griff Rhys Jones
0:39:23 > 0:39:25- and at short notice, I hear. - Yeah, two days.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27How's it going?
0:39:27 > 0:39:30Er, fine, actually.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33I remember lying on the sofa
0:39:33 > 0:39:36watching him being interviewed by Selena Scott, knowing
0:39:36 > 0:39:43he was as drunk as I was, and he was witty, intelligent, funny, coherent.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48Well, this man was an ox. I tell you, he was made of sterner stuff.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50Everyone used to use this expression, getting Smithed.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52"I was badly Smithed last night,"
0:39:52 > 0:39:57because if you went out for a drink it would turn into a very long night
0:39:57 > 0:39:59always ending up back at Mel's.
0:39:59 > 0:40:04Mel introduced me to many things. The great drink the Greyhound,
0:40:04 > 0:40:08Mel's favourite drink, which was a measure of vodka -
0:40:08 > 0:40:10I won't tell you how big the measure was -
0:40:10 > 0:40:12and fresh grapefruit juice, which is actually a very nice drink.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15And you know, by today's standard, it's quite healthy as well.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18It would have been one of his five a day, definitely.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22This has never, ever happened to me before.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26I think it's cos I must have had much too much to drink.
0:40:26 > 0:40:28I'm really sorry.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38The staff knew them as Fatty and Grumpy
0:40:38 > 0:40:41and that was all you needed to know.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44Mel, convivial, jolly, you know,
0:40:44 > 0:40:47very rare to see Mel lose his temper.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49I don't think I've ever seen it.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53Griff is constantly cross, constantly wired, very tense.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00We were making quite a lot of training films, things like that.
0:41:00 > 0:41:06And Mel, who had always wanted to direct movies,
0:41:06 > 0:41:11started to take over the direction of some of these things,
0:41:11 > 0:41:13did a few of those.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16And so...then started to direct commercials.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18We had a commercials company.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20On with the quick-fire section, fingers on the buzzers.
0:41:20 > 0:41:22Who was Britain's last coalition Prime Minister?
0:41:22 > 0:41:24- Winston Churchill. - Correct.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27- Gozzers, pinkies and... - Types of fishing bait.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29Correct. Who discovered...?
0:41:29 > 0:41:31- Louis Pasteur.- Correct. Where might...?
0:41:31 > 0:41:33- In your ear. - Correct. What...?
0:41:33 > 0:41:35- Seven. - How...?
0:41:35 > 0:41:37- Runner beans. - What...?
0:41:37 > 0:41:38H2O.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42- 'Ere, I bet he drinks... - Carling Black Label.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46And then he moved from there to... to making films,
0:41:46 > 0:41:48because it was his great passion.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59The solid truth about The Tall Guy is that at the end of
0:41:59 > 0:42:01Not The Nine O'Clock News Mel said to me,
0:42:01 > 0:42:05"If ever you write a film and don't ask me to direct it, I'll kill you."
0:42:07 > 0:42:09And I remembered that when I wrote a film.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25LOUD SNEEZING
0:42:25 > 0:42:27- Good evening, Mr Morrow. - Good evening, Dexter.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31What a life. Blind and allergic to his guide dog.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36The best bit by far in The Tall Guy
0:42:36 > 0:42:39is the spoof musical, The Elephant Man,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42and that's Mel's love/hate of musicals.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44Mel really wanted to do that
0:42:44 > 0:42:49because he didn't like Andrew Lloyd Webber's stuff any more than I did,
0:42:49 > 0:42:51but he did love Sondheim, as do I.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55So it's a kind of hybrid, actually. It's a send-up of both of them
0:42:55 > 0:42:59but it's most venomous, I think, ABOUT Andrew Lloyd Webber.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01There's one song that's terribly like him.
0:43:01 > 0:43:07# I don't know how to reach him
0:43:07 > 0:43:11# He's so distant, like a priest or a monk
0:43:11 > 0:43:17# And just when I think he's staying
0:43:20 > 0:43:26# I find out he's packing his trunk. #
0:43:31 > 0:43:33We did a poster for Elephant.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37And Mel said, "We want something that looks as though
0:43:37 > 0:43:42"the RSC has put on a serious production of The Elephant Man
0:43:42 > 0:43:47"as a musical called Elephant, and it needs to be pretentious."
0:43:47 > 0:43:50And I said, "I can do pretentious no problem whatsoever."
0:43:50 > 0:43:52I remember doing it and thinking,
0:43:52 > 0:43:55'Yeah, no, no, this is exactly what the RSC would do
0:43:55 > 0:43:59"for The Elephant Man Musical, especially directed by Trevor Nunn.'
0:43:59 > 0:44:04Excuse me, you were brilliant.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06- You were just brilliant. - Thank you very much.
0:44:11 > 0:44:13Lovely.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15The thing you have to remember
0:44:15 > 0:44:17about Mel is that he wanted to be a commercial film director,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20and so he was aware that you had to make commercially accessible movies.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24He liked Hollywood. He wasn't averse to the kind of Hollywood machine.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27In fact, he very much wanted to be a part of it in reality.
0:44:34 > 0:44:38In the early '90s, on the back of the success of The Tall Guy
0:44:38 > 0:44:42and his work in commercials, Mel and his wife Pam moved to Los Angeles.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45The thing about Mel was he kind of looked the part.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47He had enormous presence. If he got the meetings,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50he invariably impressed the people out there.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57Mel's first Hollywood film was Radioland Murders.
0:44:57 > 0:44:59Produced by George Lucas,
0:44:59 > 0:45:02it paid homage to the screwball comedies of the 1930s.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04But the film flopped.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08There's nothing like a film tanking to take the wind out your sails.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10I mean, it was a really ghastly experience, you know,
0:45:10 > 0:45:12cos these things just take so long to make.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15He so wanted to be a successful movie director.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17That's what he wanted.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22In 1997, three years after the difficult experience
0:45:22 > 0:45:25of Radioland Murders, Mel did direct
0:45:25 > 0:45:28what was to become by far his most successful film.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37There were quite high hopes for Bean because the TV show
0:45:37 > 0:45:40had already internationally been such a big deal and so it was
0:45:40 > 0:45:45definitely a way of Mel, you know, kind of trying to guarantee a hit.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52Bean went on to make over £150 million at the box office.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55Back in Britain, Alas Smith And Jones
0:45:55 > 0:45:58and Mel and Griff's company were going from strength to strength.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01Ladies and customers,
0:46:01 > 0:46:04tonight we have a very important announcement to make to you all.
0:46:04 > 0:46:08Yes, we have been in consultation with members of the government
0:46:08 > 0:46:10at the very lowest level, and we are here to tell you
0:46:10 > 0:46:13it's been decided to sell us off to the country.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the privatisation of Smith and Jones.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22In 2000, Mel, Griff and fellow company director Peter Fincham
0:46:22 > 0:46:26sold Talkback Productions for £62 million.
0:46:26 > 0:46:31When Mel and Griff and Peter sold Talkback for ganillions...
0:46:33 > 0:46:36..you sort of thought, well, that's...
0:46:36 > 0:46:39that's made Mel into what he was already.
0:46:39 > 0:46:43He was very comfortable with money, he always, I think...
0:46:43 > 0:46:46There was always a certain amount of cash from the word go.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49I think his granny... He would go up to London and his granny
0:46:49 > 0:46:52would sort of sort him out with a few quid if he was a bit skint.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55It's true that while we were in the business of selling Talkback
0:46:55 > 0:46:58and before the deal was done and the ink was dry,
0:46:58 > 0:47:01he went out and bought himself a new Rolls-Royce, which caused me
0:47:01 > 0:47:04and Griff considerable consternation because we were very nervous that
0:47:04 > 0:47:07the deal would go wrong, and we were, in a typical British way,
0:47:07 > 0:47:10a bit embarrassed about the fact that we were making a lot of money.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13And the last thing that we wanted to do was to kind of flash the cash.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17But Mel had absolutely no compunctions about flashing the cash at all.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21Once he made a lot of money, he sort of invited
0:47:21 > 0:47:24everybody to have huge lunches or whatever.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26Or he'd invite us to a box at the races.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28He was very generous with it.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32I suspect that took away a bit of the edge that was,
0:47:32 > 0:47:35"I'm going to go to Hollywood and make it big,"
0:47:35 > 0:47:38because he'd sort of...made it big, without trying, really.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41And so I suspect that he thought "I'll go and have..."
0:47:41 > 0:47:43You know, "I'll pop down the racecourse."
0:47:57 > 0:48:00I used to come racing all the time with Mel
0:48:00 > 0:48:03and then about 12 years ago, something like that,
0:48:03 > 0:48:05Mel said, "Let's do it together."
0:48:05 > 0:48:07And so we started buying horses.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12Mel and he arrived and Mel liked a large vodka, so he had one.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16I was very modest myself. Of course, yeah.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18Anthony didn't have quite such a large one.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21But anyway, they liked the set-up
0:48:21 > 0:48:25and let me go and buy them a horse.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28Many a lunch one would have and on the drive home...
0:48:28 > 0:48:30being driven, I hasten to add...
0:48:30 > 0:48:33we would... one would say to the other,
0:48:33 > 0:48:37"Did we just buy a horse?" "I don't know, did we?"
0:48:37 > 0:48:45And this is our star, called the Cheka, and he's by Xaar,
0:48:45 > 0:48:50and Mel named him after the Cheka, which was the secret service police
0:48:50 > 0:48:55under Lenin, which he knew and not very many other people knew,
0:48:55 > 0:48:59but this boy has earned more money than all of the others.
0:48:59 > 0:49:03Well, actually, come to think of it, all the others put together.
0:49:13 > 0:49:18We went back by train with the cup, and this huge cup,
0:49:18 > 0:49:21and we were sitting in the carriage on the train,
0:49:21 > 0:49:23and Mel said, "Well, you take care of the cup,
0:49:23 > 0:49:25"I'll just go and get a drink."
0:49:25 > 0:49:28And he came back three or four minutes later
0:49:28 > 0:49:32and he had bought the whole trolley.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35Um, and people would come up and go...
0:49:35 > 0:49:38and he'd just give them drinks and he would...
0:49:38 > 0:49:43But we drank the whole train dry on the way back from that victory.
0:49:47 > 0:49:49Fundamentally he was a very bright guy.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52He was a big intellect, but at the same time
0:49:52 > 0:49:54he was obviously a famously big bon viveur,
0:49:54 > 0:49:58and there was a point in the '80s where those two things could quite happily coexist,
0:49:58 > 0:50:01but inevitably, as everything has become more corporate, you know,
0:50:01 > 0:50:05certainly in Hollywood, it becomes a lot harder to be that person.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09I can remember him describing that when he went out to dinner one day
0:50:09 > 0:50:13and ordered a large vodka and tonic, that everyone looked at him askance,
0:50:13 > 0:50:16that this obviously wasn't the way to get films.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19You know, you had to pretend to be sort of teetotal.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22Sober and not interested in alcohol.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30In 2001, Mel directed the film High Heels And Low Lifes
0:50:30 > 0:50:32and then Blackball two years later.
0:50:32 > 0:50:34Both low-budget British comedies,
0:50:34 > 0:50:37neither reached the box-office heights of Bean
0:50:37 > 0:50:39and Mel's film directing career began to tail off.
0:50:39 > 0:50:42To the astonishments of all his mates,
0:50:42 > 0:50:45he said, "I'm going back in the theatre." And off he went.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48His whole life was about... this leads to the next bit
0:50:48 > 0:50:50and this gives me the opportunity to do the next bit.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53And then it's interesting that after the film directing,
0:50:53 > 0:50:56where did he end up back again but the theatre?
0:50:56 > 0:50:59He was in...Hairspray and he was great in that
0:50:59 > 0:51:02and did a dance, and it was a great thing.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05He came back after the first night, and I went to see him,
0:51:05 > 0:51:08and he said what he was most pleased with was the dance,
0:51:08 > 0:51:14because he knew that I would not be able to do the dance that he did.
0:51:14 > 0:51:16And he was quite right.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18# Cos the world keeps spinning round and round
0:51:18 > 0:51:21# My heart's keeping time to the speed of sound
0:51:21 > 0:51:26# I was lost till I heard the drums, then I found my way
0:51:26 > 0:51:28# Cos you can't stop the beat
0:51:28 > 0:51:30# Ever since this old world began
0:51:30 > 0:51:33# A woman found out if she shook it she could shake up a man
0:51:33 > 0:51:37# So I'm gonna shake and shimmy it the best that I can today
0:51:37 > 0:51:40# You can't stop the motion of the ocean... #
0:51:40 > 0:51:45Mel loved musicals. He absolutely adored them. Yeah.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49Well, we did the Nancy Boys all those years ago
0:51:49 > 0:51:54and the...choreographer was Bruno...
0:51:54 > 0:51:59Bruno Tonioli? What's it...? Bruno, Bruno... anyway, yeah.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02So, um, we worked with the best.
0:52:02 > 0:52:04MUSIC: "Atomic" by Blondie
0:52:09 > 0:52:13Theatre was always very important to Mel, and when he did stuff
0:52:13 > 0:52:16he did it because he wanted to rather than, as it were,
0:52:16 > 0:52:20because he had to or he felt it would push him further up
0:52:20 > 0:52:23some imaginary ladder, you know.
0:52:23 > 0:52:26He played Churchill in Edinburgh because he liked the script.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28He was passionate about Allegiance.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30He was very proud of what he did with that.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33And the Stephen Poliakoff play that he did on television,
0:52:33 > 0:52:36I thought he was terribly good in that.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39I met Harold Voight from the Cecil the other day.
0:52:39 > 0:52:44He couldn't believe - could absolutely not believe -
0:52:44 > 0:52:47that I had coloured musicians staying in this hotel.
0:52:47 > 0:52:49Just down the road at the Savoy Theatre,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52people are walking out of Othello even as we speak,
0:52:52 > 0:52:57because the coloured actor... what's his name...Robeson... is kissing his Desdemona.
0:52:57 > 0:53:02And yet I give you four months' work in this hotel!
0:53:02 > 0:53:06People are amazed at what I've done!
0:53:06 > 0:53:09Even though for somebody who was well known for not having
0:53:09 > 0:53:12the longest attention span, I found as an actor, and especially
0:53:12 > 0:53:14on Dancing On The Edge, that he was very rigorous
0:53:14 > 0:53:16and he really, really wanted...
0:53:16 > 0:53:18He would ask for more takes and say, "I can do it better."
0:53:18 > 0:53:21I think it was a shock for people to see him
0:53:21 > 0:53:24having changed so much, because he'd been in hospital on and off
0:53:24 > 0:53:28for quite a while and he had really bad throat operations and things,
0:53:28 > 0:53:30so he wasn't, you know...
0:53:30 > 0:53:32his effervescent bubbling self,
0:53:32 > 0:53:34but in a way I think that was rather wonderful.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37I spent a lot of time with him at Christmas when he was in hospital.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39He was ill over Christmas,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42and he was in hospital for quite a long time and, um...
0:53:42 > 0:53:44It was interesting actually,
0:53:44 > 0:53:46cos he did resolve while he was in there to get really properly fit.
0:53:46 > 0:53:51I think unfortunately he'd had enough of being unwell, really.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53He was even thinking about cutting down on the cigars
0:53:53 > 0:53:55and maybe the whiskies, as it were.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59And actually, last time I saw him he wasn't even drinking.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02So, you know, he really... he still had a zest for life.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05He was... On the set of Dancing On The Edge,
0:54:05 > 0:54:08there was a serenity... Well, certainly he may have been...
0:54:08 > 0:54:10he may have been concealing things from me,
0:54:10 > 0:54:13but there was a serenity as he sat there reading books
0:54:13 > 0:54:17and he was very happy to be part of this show with this music
0:54:17 > 0:54:21and this creation of the 1930s and...
0:54:21 > 0:54:24He seemed to be at peace with that stage of his life,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27of being on a set and acting this part.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34Good evening. Tributes have been paid to the comedian Mel Smith,
0:54:34 > 0:54:36who's died suddenly at his home in London
0:54:36 > 0:54:38after suffering a heart attack. He was 60.
0:54:38 > 0:54:41I have to say...
0:54:47 > 0:54:49..that it hasn't really...
0:54:52 > 0:54:56..sunk in, in a funny way.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00I spoke to him on the night...on the night he died!
0:55:00 > 0:55:04He was checking with me the time of the race
0:55:04 > 0:55:07that we had a horse running the next day,
0:55:07 > 0:55:12and had we picked a jockey, and which was that jockey,
0:55:12 > 0:55:17and he was absolutely 100% on the ball,
0:55:17 > 0:55:19and he didn't wake up.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23In the early days, we would say, well, we're not going to make 30.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26And then I got married and settled down and the rest of it.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29And everyone would say, well, Mel's not going to make 40.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32Then he's not going to make 50 and, you know,
0:55:32 > 0:55:38the fact that he was still going strong at that age was a miracle.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41He would be furious if we all sat here being maudlin about him.
0:55:41 > 0:55:42He'd be absolutely livid.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45So in a way you're not, do you know what I mean?
0:55:45 > 0:55:47Hang on!
0:55:47 > 0:55:51What the...? What the hell's this caption doing here?
0:55:51 > 0:55:53They're just testing it, they've got to test it.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Why can't they test it some other bloody time?! For God's sake, Griff!
0:55:56 > 0:55:59- Watch the blood pressure! - There's nothing wrong with me,
0:55:59 > 0:56:02- I'm fine!- I think you'd just better sit down.
0:56:02 > 0:56:04For Christ's sake!
0:56:04 > 0:56:07I'd keep that caption if I were you, I think you might need it.
0:56:09 > 0:56:13I did spend an awfully long time, part of my life working with Mel.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17And it's only, strangely, when I sit down and rationally think...
0:56:19 > 0:56:24..oh, gosh, you know, like, he was in that coffin and he's
0:56:24 > 0:56:28actually sort of not around any more, that some of the things that,
0:56:28 > 0:56:32um, that you had sort of imagined, this is the most terrible cliche,
0:56:32 > 0:56:35but you had imagined that you might do, or get together, or things...
0:56:35 > 0:56:38and it doesn't occur to you until somebody says, "Will you do this?"
0:56:38 > 0:56:41And you go, "Well, I can't really do that any more
0:56:41 > 0:56:44"because that's what I used to do with Mel."
0:56:44 > 0:56:48And, er, in absolute truth, the thing that I will,
0:56:48 > 0:56:53know I will never be able to do again
0:56:53 > 0:56:59is sit on stage with Mel
0:56:59 > 0:57:04and make an audience laugh to the degree
0:57:04 > 0:57:10that we could on a good night with the right audience,
0:57:10 > 0:57:14probably having drunk enough.
0:57:14 > 0:57:15But sometimes it was like...
0:57:15 > 0:57:19It was pure, it was a very pure experience.
0:57:22 > 0:57:26Isn't it lovely to see the old place full again?
0:57:26 > 0:57:29Oh, yeah, isn't it marvellous?
0:57:29 > 0:57:33Look at that! They've even put some people up there in the dangerous bit!
0:57:33 > 0:57:37The gods, they call that.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39Do they? Why do they call them that?
0:57:39 > 0:57:43They tear up your ticket, you walk in and you say, "Oh, God, we're not up here again."
0:57:43 > 0:57:47# I've drunk my fill
0:57:47 > 0:57:52# Of love's sweet fountain
0:57:52 > 0:57:59# And I've savoured each bittersweet thrill
0:57:59 > 0:58:02# Unfurled my flag
0:58:02 > 0:58:07# On life's high mountain
0:58:07 > 0:58:13# And I've assailed the unassailable hill
0:58:13 > 0:58:17# Yes, I have trekked
0:58:17 > 0:58:20# To the back of beyond
0:58:20 > 0:58:24# And I have swum
0:58:24 > 0:58:27# The unswimmable pond
0:58:27 > 0:58:31# With each new day
0:58:31 > 0:58:34# The rising sun brings
0:58:39 > 0:58:47# I've sort of done things. #
0:58:49 > 0:58:51APPLAUSE