Arthur Smith | Comedy
Arthur burst onto the stand-up, alternative comedy scene in the late 1970’s, and his appeal hasn’t waned today.
He has been regularly attending the famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival since 1977, and has been comparing the long-running competition Hackney Empire New Act of the Year.
However, stand-up is not the only comedy Arthur excels at. He is known to have performed musical comedy shows on the radio, such as Arthur Smith Sings Leonard Cohen, shown on Radio 4.
Arthur Smith | Media
Whilst a popular stage comedian, Arthur is also a familiar voice on our radios, presenting programmes including Excess Baggage, Loose Ends, and The Comedy Club for BBC Radio 4. He took the role of consumer expert in the late 1980s, testing items including Pot Noodles and hangover cures for BBC Radio 2’s Nightcap show. Other radio credits include Married, and the Doctor Who audio episode The Kingmaker.
He appeared as the narrator for the TV series A Life of Grime, and was one of the original men in Grumpy Old Men. Arthur has done voice work for the famed Aardman Animations on their short Ident, as well as for TV animation The Animal Train, Rex the Runt, and Romuald the Reindeer. He has also appeared on The Bill (1989), Are You Being Served (2016), Red Dwarf, and as the narrator on Money For Nothing.
In the 1980s, Arthur collaborated with actor Phil Nice to make a series of parody documentaries for Channel 4, titled Arthur and Phil Go Off, where they covered stories such as “Nessie – Real or Pretend” about the Loch Ness Monster.
Arthur Smith | Writing
Arthur is also a talented writer, having penned a number of serious and semi-serious works, including plays such as the Olivier-nominated An Evening With Gary Lineker, as well as My Summer Dies With Des, and The Live Bed Show, which starred famous comic actors Caroline Quentin and Paul Merton.
As well as plays, Arthur is a published author of over half a dozen books, including:
– Trench Kiss (1990)
– An Evening With Gary Lineker (1992)
– Pointless Hoax (1997)
– Sit-Down Comedy (2003)
– That Which Is Not Said (2006)
– My Name is Daphne Fairfax (2009)
– 100 Things I Meant to Tell You: Rants, Rhymes, and Reportage from the Original Grumpy Old Man (2019)
He is also a great corporate entertainer and host.
