Derek Smith (television producer)
Derek Smith (16 April 1927 – 17 March 2015)[1] was a British producer whose body of work extended to more than 100 programmes or series. He was the creator and producer of the original BBC Television series of Top Gear[2] and the adventure survival series Now Get Out Of That.
Early life
Smith was born in
Early career
Smith joined the BBC in Birmingham in 1957, working as an assistant producer on the newly created Farming magazine programme.[4][5] In the early 1960s he moved on to work on general programming, directing, and producing films and programmes on a range of subjects for the BBC.[6]
Military subjects
One of the first of a number of films he made about the services was Soldier In The Sun, a film looking at the
Smith produced The Flight Deck Story,[7] the history of the aircraft carrier, filmed on HMS Eagle and on USS Enterprise off the coast of Vietnam.[8] He also produced Mission To Hell, which followed the Bishop of Birmingham Leonard Wilson returning to Singapore to tell his story of war time imprisonment by the Japanese Army. Another military history film Smith made at this time was Jump Jet, the history of the Hawker Harrier, vertical take-off or land aircraft.
General subjects
A film for the series The World About Us, The Lost River Of Gaping Gill showed cavers exploring the route of an underground river in Yorkshire.
In 1971, Smith was in the news when an advertisement for his documentary The Car Makers, which included a look behind the scenes of British Leyland's new Morris Marina car, inadvertently revealed the name and images of the car ahead of its launch.[9]
A series of six films produced by Smith in 1974 was Journey Through Summer, in which actor and writer
Smith also produced four films Archie Hill Comes Home, about
A studio based programme devised by Smith was Major Minor, a piano competition for 10-13 year-olds. A BBC Midlands programme, repeated on the network, it ran for three seasons and was presented by musician and composer Steve Race.
In 1975, Smith produced the film Return To Dunkirk, about the men who escaped from a massacre at Esquelbecq. Just A Year[12] followed three of the survivors of the Birmingham pub bombs in November 1974 which killed 21 people.[13]
In March 1977, Smith created and produced a new series for BBC Midlands, Top Gear.
Smith produced several series of Kick Start, a competition based on the sport of motorcycle trials riding. An original programme devised by Smith was Now Get Out Of That, an outdoor competition between two teams testing their survival abilities along with problem solving mental tests.
References
- ^ "Prolific television producer who spotted a gap in the market for a motoring programme and titled it Top Gear" The Times Obituaries April 16, 2015 p. 54
- ^ "'Top Gear' Creator Derek Smith Dies at 87". The Hollywood Reporter.
- ^ Smith, Graham. "Derek Smith obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ "The passing of a Top Gear legend". MotoringBox.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-7667-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-0198159261.
- ^ Radio Times. July 17, 1969 p. 29. Article by Derek Smith
- ^ Birmingham Evening Mail. March 13, 1969
- ^ Daily Telegraph, Wednesday April 21, 1971
- ^ Gerard Dempsey, Daily Express, June 20, 1973
- ^ Sunday Times July 21, 1974
- ^ Article, Radio Times. November 20, 1975 pp. 12, 15
- ^ Richard Last, Daily Telegraph, April 22, 1976
- ^ "Tribute to Producer Who PUTTOP Gear on the Road; Pebble Mill Became Base for Early Incarnation of BBC Motoring Show" Birmingham Post, March 26, 2015
External links
- Soldier in the Sun - Film looking at the Royal Anglian Regiment in Aden and Yemen (1964)
- Now Get Out Of That[permanent dead link] at ukgameshows.com - Review of the programmes
- BBC Cult Classic Adventuregame - Article
- Lost Gems at The Medium Is Not Enough.com - Now Get Out Of That - article, photos and film clip
- Kick Start[permanent dead link] at ukgameshows - Details on the programme
- Guardian Other Lives Obituary Obituary written by his son
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