Melvin Kenneth Smith (3 December 1952 – 19 July 2013) was an English comedian and film 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. Smith and Jones founded Talkback, which grew to be one of the UK's largest producers of television 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 ended, he moved to London and married Smith's mother, whose parents owned a greengrocers in Chiswick. When the government legalised high street betting with the Betting and Gaming Act 1960, he turned the shop into the first betting shop in Chiswick.

Smith was born and brought up in Chiswick. He was educated at Hogarth Primary School, Chiswick, …Read more on Wikipedia