Alas Smith and Jones
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''Alas Smith and Jones'' is a British
comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
sketch television series starring comedy duo and namesake
Mel Smith Melvyn Kenneth Smith (3 December 1952 – 19 July 2013) was an English comedian, actor and director. Smith worked on the sketch comedy shows ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' and ''Alas Smith and Jones'' with his comedy partner, Griff Rhys Jones. ...
and
Griff Rhys Jones Griffith Rhys Jones (born 16 November 1953) is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, and television presenter. He starred in a number of television series with his comedy partner, Mel Smith. Rhys Jones came to national attention in the 1980s for h ...
that originally ran for four series and two Christmas specials on BBC2 from 1984 to 1988, and later as ''Smith and Jones'' for six series on
BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
until 1998. A spin-off from ''
Not the Nine O'Clock News ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' is a British television sketch comedy show which was broadcast on BBC2 from 1979 to 1982. Originally shown as a comedy alternative to the '' Nine O'Clock News'' on BBC1, it features satirical sketches on then-cur ...
'', the show also had a brief run in the United States on A&E and
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
in the late 1980s, as well as on
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
in the early 1990s during their late-night block.


History


Background

The show's creation followed the ending of ''
Not the Nine O'Clock News ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' is a British television sketch comedy show which was broadcast on BBC2 from 1979 to 1982. Originally shown as a comedy alternative to the '' Nine O'Clock News'' on BBC1, it features satirical sketches on then-cur ...
'' in 1982. Rowan Atkinson and
Pamela Stephenson Pamela Helen Stephenson, Lady Connolly (born 4 December 1949) is a New Zealand-born psychologist, writer, and performer who is now a resident in both the United Kingdom and the United States. She is best known for her work as an actress and co ...
followed individual career paths, whilst Smith and Jones opted to form a double act instead. The first post-''Not…'' appearance as a duo was in a short sketch in the BBC1 comedy special ''
The Funny Side of Christmas ''The Funny Side of Christmas'' is a Christmas special broadcast by BBC1 on 27 December 1982. Presented by Frank Muir, it comprised one comedy sketch each from 10 contemporaneous BBC comedy series: ''Butterflies (TV series), Butterflies'', ''Th ...
'' in 1982, where Jones played a complete stranger who annoyed hospital patient Smith to the extent that Smith's character walked out in a rage, leaving Jones's character to enjoy Smith's Christmas gifts. Shortly afterwards the BBC offered the pair their own show, with much of the material written by themselves with help from a large team of other writers. The show's title was a pun on the American television series ''
Alias Smith and Jones ''Alias Smith and Jones'' is an American Western series that originally aired on ABC from January 1971 to January 1973. The show initially starred Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, outlaw cousins who are tryin ...
'', which was very popular in Britain.


Format

The show continued along lines similar to ''Not…'', using taboo-breaking material and sketches in questionable taste (as well as bad language). It also featured head-to-head 'duologues' between Smith and Jones. It shared several script writers with ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' including
Clive Anderson Clive Stuart Anderson (born 10 December 1952) is an English television and radio presenter, comedy writer, and former barrister. Winner of a British Comedy Award in 1991, Anderson began experimenting with comedy and writing comedic scripts durin ...
and
Colin Bostock-Smith Colin Bostock-Smith (born 1942)"I was born in 1942, so I was exactly the right age for rock and roll when it all happened./ref> is a British television and radio comedy writer. Early career Until the age of 30, he was a journalist, noting in a re ...
, and used
Chris Langham Christopher Langham (born 14 April 1949) is an English writer, actor, and comedian. He is known for playing the cabinet minister Hugh Abbot in the BBC sitcom '' The Thick of It'', and as presenter Roy Mallard in '' People Like Us'', first on B ...
as a cast regular, while also using
Andy Hamilton Andrew Neil Hamilton (born 28 May 1954) is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter, radio dramatist, novelist and actor. Early life and education Hamilton was born in Fulham, southwest London. He ...
, which helped keep the show to a consistently high standard. The head-to-head sketches were very much in the
Pete and Dud Pete and Dud were characters played by the comedians and entertainers Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. The dialogue format originated in 1964 when Dudley Moore invited Peter Cook to appear in a television performance. Cook scripted a conversation bet ...
mould, with Smith playing the idiot who knew everything and Jones the idiot who knew nothing. The format of the head-to-head with similar characters was used by Smith and Jones in a series of commercials.


TalkBack

The final full series to be produced solely by the BBC was series 4 in 1987, also the last series to be broadcast on BBC2. Starting from the 1987 Christmas special, ''The Homemade Xmas Video'', the show became one of the first to be produced for the BBC by an independent production company,
TalkBack Talkback or talk back may refer to: * ''Talkback'' (album), a 1983 album by the Canadian band the Spoons * ''Talk Back'' (Kembe X album), 2016 *Talkback, an alternate name for Marvel Comics superhero Chase Stein * Talkback (recording), an audio ...
, of which Smith and Jones were founding directors. Series 5 in 1989, the first series to be broadcast on BBC1, was the first full series of the show to be produced by TalkBack for the BBC. Smith and Jones would later sell TalkBack to
Pearson Television Pearson Television was the British-based television production and distribution arm of a British company Pearson PLC. History In 1994 after a bidding war, Pearson PLC bought the former British ITV franchisee Thames Television. Then in 1995 i ...
, by then owners of
Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...
, in 2000 for £62 million. Pearson PLC sold Pearson Television to CLT-UFA in 2001 to form the
RTL Group RTL Group (for "Radio Television Luxembourg") is a Luxembourg-based international media conglomerate, with another corporate centre in Cologne, Germany. The company operates 68 television channels and 31 radio stations in Germany, France an ...
. Pearson Television was renamed
FremantleMedia Fremantle (; formerly FremantleMedia) is a British multinational television production and distribution company based in London. Fremantle takes its name from Fremantle International, acquired by predecessor company All American Television i ...
and its UK division took the Thames Television name. The operational departments of TalkBack and Thames were later merged to form
Talkback Thames Talkback Thames (stylised as talkbackTHAMES) was a British television production company, a division of Fremantle (part of the RTL Group, which in turn is owned by Bertelsmann). It was formed by the merger of Talkback Productions and Thames ...
in 2003; initially each brand continued to be used on screen, but eventually all productions used the Talkback Thames name. However, in 2011 it was announced the individual brand names would return and 'Talkback' is now once again used solely for comedy productions.


Episode guide

The show ran for ten series across 14 years, each comprising six 30-minute episode


''Alas Smith and Jones'' (BBC2)

* Series 1: 31 January 1984 – 6 March 1984 * Series 2: 31 October 1985 – 5 December 1985 * Series 3: 18 September 1986 – 23 October 1986 * Series 4: 15 October 1987 – 26 November 1987 *The Homemade Xmas Video: Christmas Special 1987 (23 December) *Alas Sage and Onion: Christmas Special 1988 (21 December)


''Smith and Jones'' (BBC1)

The show moved from BBC2 to BBC1 starting from the fifth series in 1989, and at the same time 'Alas' was dropped from the title. * Series 5: 16 November 1989 – 28 December 1989 * Series 6: 22 November 1990 – 3 January 1991 * Series 7: 22 October 1992 – 3 December 1992 * Series 8: 6 September 1995 – 18 October 1995 * Series 9: 19 June 1997 – 24 July 1997 * Series 10: 9 September 1998 – 14 October 1998


''The World According to Smith and Jones'' (1987–1988)

In early 1987, between series 3 and 4 of ''Alas…'', Smith and Jones produced a six-part series for
London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...
called ''The World According to Smith and Jones''. Written by many of the regular writers from the duo's previous series, this was a mock-historical documentary show, hosted by the duo from behind standard presenter's desks (somewhat in the style of the closing sequence of ''
The Two Ronnies ''The Two Ronnies'' is a British television comedy sketch show starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. It was created by Bill Cotton and aired on BBC1 from April 1971 to December 1987. The usual format included sketches, solo sections, seria ...
'') and attempting to study specific periods of history via clips from old (and preferably obscure) black-and-white films. The show included a running joke in which Jones would identify a character resembling Smith within the footage of each episode, and then claim that it was one of Smith's many ancestors. ''The World According to Smith and Jones'' received average reviews and was less well-received than Smith and Jones' BBC series. When ''Alas Smith and Jones'' returned for its own fourth series later in 1987, one of the sketches was a vicious parody of ''The World According to Smith and Jones'' under the title of ''A Collection of Old Jokes According to Smith and Jones''. The first series was repeated once in late 1987.''The YouTube Files: The World According to Smith and Jones''
(accessed 20 November 2022)
Despite the criticism (and the apparently ambivalent opinion of its stars towards the programme), ''The World According to Smith and Jones'' returned for a second six-part series in 1988, with the mock-historical format altered in favour of each episode concentrating on a single topic (medicine, war, law, education, arts and science). Unlike the first series, this series was not repeated and there were no further episodes of the show. To date, it has not been re-released on DVD or via streaming.


''Smith and Jones in Small Doses'' (1989)

''Smith and Jones in Small Doses'' was a series of four comedy playlets shown on BBC2 from 19 October 1989 to 9 November 1989, each written by a different comedian or screenwriter. It was the last show the duo made for BBC2, broadcast shortly before the fifth series of ''Smith and Jones'' (the first shown on
BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
). # The Whole Hog by
Graeme Garden David Graeme Garden OBE (born 18 February 1943) is a Scottish comedian, actor, author, artist and television presenter, best known as a member of The Goodies and a regular panellist on ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. Early life and education ...
: 19 October 1989 # The Boat People by
Griff Rhys Jones Griffith Rhys Jones (born 16 November 1953) is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, and television presenter. He starred in a number of television series with his comedy partner, Mel Smith. Rhys Jones came to national attention in the 1980s for h ...
: 26 October 1989 # Second Thoughts by
Anthony Minghella Anthony Minghella, (6 January 195418 March 2008) was a British film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. He won the Academy Award for Best Directo ...
: 2 November 1989 # The Waiting Room by John Mortimer: 9 November 1989 The series was repeated a year later on BBC2 from 25 October 1990 to 15 November 1990, albeit in a completely different order (''The Boat People'', ''The Whole Hog'', ''The Waiting Room'', ''Second Thoughts'').


''The Smith and Jones Sketchbook'' (2006)

Following on from the success of ''
The Two Ronnies Sketchbook ''The Two Ronnies Sketchbook'' is a collection of sketches from the BBC comedy series ''The Two Ronnies'', with newly filmed introductions by the stars, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. It was first broadcast 34 years after the first episode of ...
'' the previous year, Smith and Jones returned in 2006 with ''The Smith and Jones Sketchbook''. The six-part series consisted primarily of Smith and Jones introducing highlights from the show's original run from 1984 to 1998. Some of the classic head-to-head sketches were updated with new material written especially for the programme. The series was broadcast on
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
on Friday nights at 9:30 p.m., from 21 April 2006 to 26 May 2006. It has not been repeated since its original broadcast or released commercially.


Commercial releases

In 1991, a compilation of footage from series 5 and 6 was compiled for a VHS release—simply titled ''Smith and Jones''. The second video released in 1993 featured footage from series 1 to 4, particularly from the second series. A compilation
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
release ''The Best of Smith and Jones'' was scheduled for 8 August 2005 by the BBC, but has been delayed many times and is unlikely to be released. However, in October 2009,
FremantleMedia Fremantle (; formerly FremantleMedia) is a British multinational television production and distribution company based in London. Fremantle takes its name from Fremantle International, acquired by predecessor company All American Television i ...
released a two-disc set titled ''At Last Smith and Jones - Volume 1''. This contained compilations of the first four series, as well as the two Christmas specials, "The Homemade Xmas Video" and "Alas Sage and Onion". The first of these has a scene cut, presumably for music clearance reasons, but the latter has an additional scene removed from the initial broadcast. The scene involves a plane crash, and the special was first broadcast mere hours after the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. The set also includes the complete 1989 series ''Smith and Jones in Small Doses''. Volume 2 was prepared at the same time as the first release, featuring newly-edited highlights episodes from the later ''Smith and Jones'' era plus the unbroadcast sitcom pilot ''Three Flights Up'', but has yet to see release. Tie-in books included ''The Smith and Jones World Atlas'' (a humorous
gazetteer A gazetteer is a geographical index or directory used in conjunction with a map or atlas.Aurousseau, 61. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup, social statistics and physical features of a country, region, or con ...
of the world's countries), ''Janet Lives With Mel and Griff'', and ''The Lavishly Tooled Smith and Jones Instant
Coffee Table Book A coffee table book, also known as a cocktail table book, is an oversized, usually hard-covered book whose purpose is for display on a table intended for use in an area in which one entertains guests and from which it can serve to inspire convers ...
'' (co-written with
Clive Anderson Clive Stuart Anderson (born 10 December 1952) is an English television and radio presenter, comedy writer, and former barrister. Winner of a British Comedy Award in 1991, Anderson began experimenting with comedy and writing comedic scripts durin ...
), which was designed to look as if it could be made into a coffee table.


References


External links

* Comedy Guide * Programmes * Programmes * Programmes * * * *{{IMDb title, 0824182, The Smith and Jones Sketchbook 1984 British television series debuts 1998 British television series endings 1980s British television sketch shows 1990s British television sketch shows BBC television sketch shows British comedy duos Television series by Fremantle (company) English-language television shows