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Douglas Arthur Smith
[''England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007''] (11 February 1924 – 15 October 1972)
was a British radio announcer and comedian who spent 25 years with the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
.
He began his
broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...
career with the BBC European Service (now the
World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
) in 1946 and later worked as an announcer and newsreader on the
Home Service
Home Service is a British folk rock group, formed in late 1980 from a nucleus of musicians who had been playing in Ashley Hutchings' Albion Band. Their career is generally agreed to have peaked with the album ''Alright Jack'', and has had an ...
and the
Third Programme
The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and quickly became one of the leading cultural and intellectual f ...
.
He is probably best remembered as the formal announcer on ''
Beyond Our Ken
''Beyond Our Ken'' is a BBC radio comedy programme first broadcast between 1958 and 1964. It starred Kenneth Horne, with Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden, Bill Pertwee, and, as announcer, Douglas Smith. The title is a play on t ...
'' (1958–1964), its successor ''
Round the Horne
''Round the Horne'' is a BBC Radio comedy programme starring Kenneth Horne, first transmitted in four series of weekly episodes from 1965 until 1968. The show was created by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, who wrote the first three series. The fo ...
'' (1965–1968) and the short-lived ''
Stop Messing About'' (1969–1970), where his "
BBC accent" was used to comic effect.
In this role, he advertised ''Dobbiroids'' (a fictional product for horses) and the huge number of naïve sound effects he made to assist in the development of humorous and often bizarre plots.
Smith performed "Nobody Loves a Fairy When She's Forty" in an episode of ''Round the Horne''. Many of his roles were portrayals of inanimate objects, e.g., volcanoes, "and I, Douglas Smith, play the part of the volcano", and "I, Douglas Smith, in my most taxing role to date, play the part of the world." (spoof on 'Around the World in 80 Days').
A native of Croydon, he died aged 48 in
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...
.
References
1924 births
1972 deaths
British male comedians
British male radio actors
BBC people
20th-century British comedians
People from Croydon
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