The odd couple
Recalls how mismatched partners Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones struck comedy gold together in Alas Smith and Jones four decades ago
NOT The Nine O’Clock News first showcased the comedy talents of Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith, but they rose to new heights with Alas Smith And Jones.
The title of the new show was taken from the American TV western series Alias Smith and Jones.
It was first broadcast by BBC2 40 years ago on January 31, 1984, and offered comedy sketches and the now famous deadpan head-to-head dialogues.
Mel once described the pair of them as “basically two idiots talking” and topics included everything from song lyrics to sperm banks.
Mel explained climate change saying: “It’s all about the Polar caps, and eventually the whole Earth will be covered with ice”. “Even Torquay?” asked a puzzled Griff.
Many of these head-to-head sketches were written by broadcaster and chat show host Clive Anderson and the show’s top writing team also included Rory McGrath and Jimmy Mulville, Andy Hamilton of Outnumbered and Drop The Dead Donkey fame, Robin Driscoll and Father Ted creators
Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan.
One of Mel and Griff’s most famous sketches saw Mel snog an uptight and reluctant Griff to show there was nothing sexual about kissing and they repeated the experience for Comic Relief in 1991.
Alas Smith And Jones later moved to BBC1 and the series would run for 64 episodes, finally finishing in 1998. Queen guitarist Sir Brian May appeared in the final show.
Mel passed away in 2013 at the age of 60 and Griff later said of their relationship: “On tour, we’d share a dressing room and Mel would be smoking cigars, taking his socks off and generally spreading himself about like a bear in a cave, I’d be sitting in a corner trying to read my Plato.
“We were entirely different but we had very similar tastes in what we found funny”.