Colin Bostock-Smith

Last updated

Colin Bostock-Smith (born 1942) [1] is a British television and radio comedy writer.

Contents

Early career

Until the age of 30, he was a journalist, noting in a review of an early performance by the Beatles ("four young men with four fringes, three guitars, and some drums") that they were "not nearly as bad as they might have been". [2] He later edited the music newspaper Top Pops . [3] He always had—in his words—"this feeling that I would like to write comedy", [4] starting in this area with contributions to the BBC Radio 4 show Week Ending .

Bostock-Smith has contributed to a significant number of British television comedies. In a 2008 interview, he noted that he was the sole writer of all 41 episodes of the early-1980s ITV sitcom Metal Mickey , and said he is most proud of his work on Not the Nine O'Clock News and the sitcom Me and My Girl . [4]

Selected credits

Writing contributions

Other

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clive Anderson</span> English television and radio presenter

Clive Stuart Anderson 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 during his 15-year legal career, before becoming host of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, initially a radio show on BBC Radio 4 in 1988, before moving to television on Channel 4 from 1988 to 1999. He was also host of his own chat show Clive Anderson Talks Back, which changed its name to Clive Anderson All Talk in 1996, from 1989 to 2001. He has also hosted many radio programmes, and made guest appearances on Have I Got News for You, Mock the Week and QI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mel Smith</span> English comedian and actor (1952–2013)

Melvyn Kenneth Smith was an English comedian, actor and filmmaker. He 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 United Kingdom's largest producers of television comedy and light entertainment programming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rory McGrath</span> English comedian

Patrick Rory McGrath is a British comedian, television personality, and writer. He came to prominence in the comedy show Who Dares Wins and was a regular panellist on the game show They Think It's All Over for many years. He acted in the sitcom Chelmsford 123 and appeared in the ITV reality show Sugar Free Farm.

<i>Not the Nine OClock News</i> British television comedy sketch show (1979–1982)

Not the Nine O'Clock News is a British television sketch comedy show which was broadcast on BBC2 from 16 October 1979 to 8 March 1982. Originally shown as a comedy alternative to the Nine O'Clock News on BBC1, it features satirical sketches on then-current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy sketches, re-edited videos, and spoof television formats. The programme features Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith, and Griff Rhys Jones, as well as Chris Langham in the first series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Griff Rhys Jones</span> Welsh born comedian, actor and TV host

Griffith Rhys Jones, often known and credited as Griff Rhys Jones, is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, and television presenter. Rhys Jones starred in a number of television series with his comedy partner, Mel Smith. He and Smith came to national attention in the 1980s for their work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones.

Christopher Langham 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 BBC Radio 4 and later on its transfer to television on BBC Two, where Mallard is almost entirely an unseen character. He subsequently created several spoof advertisements in the same vein. He also played similar unseen interviewers in an episode of the television series Happy Families and in the film The Big Tease. He is also known for his roles in the television series Not the Nine O'Clock News, Help, and Kiss Me Kate, and as the gatehouse guard in Chelmsford 123. In 2006, he won BAFTA awards for The Thick of It and Help.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Hamilton</span> British comedian and writer

Andrew Neil Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter, radio dramatist, novelist and actor.

Week Ending was a satirical radio current affairs sketch show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1970 and 1998. It was devised by writer-producers Simon Brett and David Hatch and was originally hosted by Nationwide presenter Michael Barratt.

<i>Alas Smith and Jones</i> British television comedy series

Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy sketch television series starring comedy duo and namesake Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones 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 until 1998. A spin-off from Not the Nine O'Clock News, the show also had a brief run in the United States on A&E and PBS in the late 1980s, as well as on CBS in the early 1990s during their late-night block.

David Peter Renwick is an English author, television writer, actor, director and executive producer. He created the sitcom One Foot in the Grave and the mystery series Jonathan Creek. He was awarded the Writers Guild Ronnie Barker Award at the 2008 British Comedy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metal Mickey</span> Childrens TV sitcom (ITV, 1980–83)

Metal Mickey is a fictional five-foot-tall robot, as well as the name of a spin-off television show starring the same character. The robot character was created, controlled and voiced by Johnny Edward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Mitchell (comedian)</span> British comedian, actor, writer and television personality (born 1974)

David James Stuart Mitchell is a British comedian, actor, and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Whorf</span> American actor, director and author (1906–1966)

Richard Whorf was an American actor, writer and film director.

Philip Jackson is an English actor. He appeared as Chief Inspector Japp in both the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot and in BBC Radio dramatisations of Poirot stories; as Melvin "Dylan" Bottomley in Porridge; and as Abbot Hugo, one of the recurring adversaries in the 1980s series Robin of Sherwood.

Adrian Philip Scarborough is an English actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Burton (filmmaker)</span> British filmmaker

Mark Burton is a British television writer, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and film director.

Colin Gilbert, born 1954, is a Glasgow-born television producer and former senior creative director of The Comedy Unit.

Laurence Peter Rowley, better known as Laurie Rowley was an English comedy writer. He is most famous as a sketch writer, working on shows such as The Two Ronnies and Not the Nine O'Clock News, for which he wrote the "Darts" sketch, which satirised the heavy drinking habits of darts players at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Carroll (comedian)</span> English comedian and actor

Jack Carroll is an English comedian and actor. He competed in the seventh series of Britain's Got Talent at the age of 14, finishing as the runner-up. As an actor, he appeared in two series of the CBBC series Ministry of Curious Stuff and from 2014 to 2018, he starred in the Sky sitcom Trollied. Carroll, whose cerebral palsy is often a subject of his act, won a Pride of Britain award in 2012.

References

  1. "I was born in 1942, so I was exactly the right age for rock and roll when it all happened."
  2. http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/environment/in-focus-she-loved-them-yeah-yeah-yeah-1-151119 [ dead link ]
  3. Smith, Alan. "Every No.1 in the 1960s is listed from all the nine different magazine charts!". Dave McAleer. Archived from the original on 10 May 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2012. Original editor was the noted author Colin Bostock-Smith.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "The den of Geek interview: Colin Bostock-Smith". 14 May 2008.
  5. 1 2 "In Brief". The Week .