Melvin Kenneth "Mel" Smith (3 December 1952 – 19 July 2013) was an English comedian, writer, film director, producer and actor. Smith worked on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Griff Rhys Jones. Smith and Jones founded Talkback, which grew to be one of the UK's largest producers of television comedy and light entertainment programming.