Alas Smith and Jones

Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy sketch television series featuring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. It was broadcast on the BBC from 31 January 1984 to 14 October 1998. From 16 November 1989 to 3 December 1992 and 6 September 1995 to 14 October 1998, it was called Smith and Jones.

History
The series followed in the footsteps of Not the Nine O'Clock News, Rowan Atkinson and Pamela Stevenson both moved on to new paths, Smith and Jones opted to team up form a double act. 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 annoying hospital patient Smith to the extent that Smith's character walks out in a rage, leaving Jones' character to enjoy Smith's Christmas gifts.

Shortly afterwards the BBC offered the pair their own series, 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 that of the American television series Alias Smith and Jones. The series continued partly along the same steps of Not... of using taboo-breaking material and sketches in questionable taste (as well as bad language), and also featured head-to-head 'duologues' between Smith and Jones. The series 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 kept the series to a consistently high standard.

The head-to-head sketches were very much in the Pete and Dud mould - Smith was the idiot who knew everything, Jones the idiot who knew nothing.

The series was one of the first to be commissioned by the BBC from an independent company, Talkback Productions of which, Smith and Jones were also directors. The format of the Head to Head with similar characters was used by Smith and Jones in a series of commercials.

The show also had a brief run in the United States on A&E and PBS.

In late 2006, Smith and Jones returned with The Smith and Jones Sketchbook, recorded a year earlier in front of a live audience, which acted as a look back at their earlier shows.

In 2007 Alas Smith and Jones was showcased on Comedy Connections, which explained the back stories behind the production of the series.

Series
Alas Smith and Jones ran for 10 series with 6 or 7 episodes of 30 minutes duration in each series.:


 * Series One 31 January 1984 – 6 March 1984: 6 episodes
 * Series Two 31 October 1985 – 5 December 1985: 6 episodes
 * Series Three 18 September 1986 – 23 October 1986: 6 episodes
 * Series Four 15 October 1987 – 26 November 1987: 7 episodes
 * Series Five16 November 1989 – 28 December 1989: 6 episodes (then titled "Smith & Jones", thus dropping the "Alas")
 * Series Six 22 November 1990 – 3 January 1991: 6 episodes
 * Series Seven 22 October 1992 – 3 December 1992: 6 episodes
 * Series Eight 6 September 1995 – 18 October 1995: 6 episodes
 * Series Nine 19 June 1997 – 24 July 1997: ' 6 episodes
 * Series Ten 9 September 1998 – 14 October 1998: Series Ten, 6 episodes

Specials

 * 27 December 1982: A 5 minute special, broadcast as part of The Funny Side of Christmas
 * 23 December 1987: 35 minute special, The Home Made Xmas Video
 * 21 December 1988: 40 minute special, Alas Sage and Onion

The World According To Smith & Jones
In 1987, (between Series 3 & 4), the duo went on to London Weekend Television for The World According To Smith & Jones. The BBC was not happy about the move to a rival and came close to not renewing their relationship. Reviews for this series were mixed; critics did not know what to make of it and Smith and Rhys Jones soon appeared back with the BBC for a fourth series later that year. Despite the criticism, The World According to Smith & Jones returned for a second series in 1988, and then, disappeared from the schedules without a repeat (unlike Series 1, which was repeated in battle against the BBC in late 1987).


 * Series One: 11 January - 15 February 1987, 6 episodes
 * Series Two: 16 January - 20 February 1988, 6 episodes

Commercial releases
In 1991, a compilation of footage from Series 5 and 6 was compiled for a VHS release - simply titled "Smith & Jones". The second video released in 1993 featured footage from Series 1–4 of the series, particularly from the second series. A compilation DVD 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, Fremantle Media released a two disc set titled "At Last Smith & Jones: Volume 1". This contained compilations of the first four series, as well as the two Christmas specials, "The Home Made Xmas Video" and "Alas Sage & 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 on the same evening as the Lockerbie bombing. The set also includes the complete 1989 series "Smith & 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 & 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 of the world's countries), Janet Lives With Mel and Griff, and The Lavishly Tooled Smith and Jones Instant Coffee Table Book (co-written with Clive Anderson), which was designed to look as if it could be made into a coffee table.