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.
History
Background
The show's creation followed the ending of Not the Nine O'Clock News in 1982. Rowan Atkinson and Pamela Stephenson 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 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, 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 and Colin Bostock-Smith, and used Chris Langham as a cast regular, while also using Andy Hamilton, which helped keep the show to a consistently high standard.
The head-to-head sketches were very much in the Pete and Dud 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, 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, by then owners of Thames Television, in 2000 for £62 million. Pearson PLC sold Pearson Television to CLT-UFA in 2001 to form the RTL Group. Pearson Television was renamed FremantleMedia and its UK division took the Thames Television name. The operational departments of TalkBack and Thames were later merged to form Talkback 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 episodes.:
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.