Derek Smith
Derek Smith[edit | edit source]
Derek Smith (16 April 1927 – 17 March 2015) 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 Top Gear and the adventure survival series Now Get Out Of That. Working as an assistant producer on the newly created Farming magazine programme. 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.
Creating Top Gear[edit | edit source]
In April 1977, Smith created and produced a new series for BBC1 Midlands, Top Gear. A magazine style programme, it ran for nine monthly episodes shown only in the Midlands region. The idea for Top Gear came when he reportedly looked out across the car park at the BBC’s former Pebble Mill Studios that made him come up with the idea for a motoring show, devising the name “Top Gear” and the format. The theme tune of Top Gear was "Jessica" by The Allman Brothers, as Smith had their album and decided to use this song, while his son Graham Smith gave the idea for him to also use Elton John's "Out of the Blue", which was used for the outro sequence. The following year, it became a network show, broadcast nationally on BBC 2.
Smith continued as series producer. A spin-off programme Smith also produced annually from 1984 to 1998, called Rally Report. Rally Report had a nightly report, including film, of the Lombard RAC Rally, dominantly presented by William Woollard to 1991, with other hosts coming in eventually, such as Steve Lee, John Leslie and ITV's motorsport commentator Steve Rider. Smith continued working on the show as a series producer until 1986.
Other Notable Work[edit | edit source]
One of the first of a number of films he made about the services was Soldier In The Sun, a film looking at the Royal Anglian Regiment in Aden and Yemen (1964). The film has been chosen by the BBC for inclusion in its BBC Four Army Collection. Another was Singapore Twilight (1965) showing the closing tasks of Midland army units. Others include: The Last Outpost, a film about the Trucial Oman Scouts in Arabia (1965); Men Of Action, a Royal Marines team competition (1966); Fly The Helicopter, showing the RAF Search and Rescue at work (1966); They Speak The Language Anyway looking at life at a US Air Force base at Mildenhall in East Anglia. (1967)
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.
Smith also briefly appeared on a Top Gear episode, as one of the people talking about the remote-controlled motorsport scene for Series 42, Episode 4, broadcast on the 30th of September 1999.
Death[edit | edit source]
Derek Smith, died aged 87, was a BBC documentary producer whose body of work covered more than 100 programmes or series. As an ideas man, he had few equals and created many original series, including the motoring show Top Gear.
References[edit | edit source]
[1] Derek Smith obituary (The Guardian)
