Mel Smith

Having enjoyed what Stephen Fry described as a "full life", Mel Smith died in July aged just 60. At this time of year, it's probably his Rockin' around the Christmas Tree duet that comes to mind first, but the clowning about was part of a rich career that shaped British comedy but also took in straight acting and directing, TV production and a modicum of high living.

Rowan Atkinson remembers a "wonderful sort of peace" in performing alongside him, and John Lloyd credits Smith with developing the naturalistic style that characterises modern alternative comedy. Lloyd and Atkinson are joined by Richard Curtis and, of course, his sketch partner Griff Rhys Jones to commemorate Mel Smith's contribution to both comedy and life in general. Home video and lots of classic sketches (which really do stand the test of time) tell the story of a beloved comic personality.

Griff Rhys Jones: 'Mel Smith died shockingly early.'

Comedy partner reveals how he coped with his friend's death.

Griff Rhys Jones on his comedy soul mate Mel Smith

"I think we made some 50 hours of TV together. God knows a lot of it won't bear repeating, but when it was good it was sheer bliss to perform with Mel".

Griff Rhys Jones: Mel & I didn't have much in common

Making shows with the late Mel Smith was 'not exactly a marriage made in heaven', his comedy partner Griff Rhys Jones has admitted.

John Lloyd: QI saved me from a mid-life crisis

John Lloyd, the man behind QI, talks about his old comedy collaborator Mel Smith and why he's finally going on stage himself at Edinburgh.

Mel Smith set scholarship to help kids attend school

A beautiful tribute to Mel Smith from his former teacher Chris Hammond published in the magazine of his old school Latymer.

Watching Watson & Oliver, I just find myself thinking how old-fashioned the format is. The awkward-intro routine was getting a bit old when Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith did it back in the late Eighties and the comic dynamic seems too obviously indebted to French and Saunders. They are both talented, though - comic actresses as well as comedians. A more up-to-date vehicle would help.

As Griff Rhys Jones made much of the phrase "unexpected item in baggage area", in an unexpected one-off celebration of, well, him. This was old-fashioned sketch stuff, none the worse for it really but therefore traditionally hit and miss, but his "unexpected item in baggage area" was the second-best bit. Rhys Jones's slumpy hangdog angry-old-man shtick gets better as he gets older (possibly aided, I seem to remember, by a period of depression) and never more so than when having to deal with, basically, a greedy robot programmed by a moron. There was also - this was the best bit - a reunion of Rhys Jones and Mel Smith, doing their men-in-white-shirts-blathering face-to-face stuff, which was very subtly scripted by John O'Farrell and reflected the real-life schism between the two, begun 16 years ago and now, at least face-to-face, resolved. Tantrums can, with age, become wearying.

To an entire generation, Griff Rhys Jones might be famous for being the man who takes Rory McGrath and Dara O'Briain sailing, climbs mountains, and presents It'll Be Alright On The Night.

The last in this series of three sees him back at the BBC performing the kind of sketches that made him a household name on Not The Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones.

And while the humour is so comfortably old-fashioned your first impression might be that these sketches have been sitting in a drawer since the 1990s, on closer inspection you'll see that there's a whole new bunch of modern obsessions to joke about.

The Reservoir Dogs spoof featuring Griff as Mr Green and former EastEnder Larry Lamb is a lovely mix of the old and the new. But one sketch about firearms in schools, is so mis-judged it wouldn't be a laughing matter in this or any decade.

Griff's other guest stars, Hugh Bonneville, Tom Hollander and Kevin McNally, are well chosen.

But the real draw of the night sees him reunited with his comedy and business partner Mel Smith for a brand new head-to-head sketch - their first together in 16 years.

After resurrecting the comedy of Lenny Henry and Jasper Carrott, there are plenty of other folk who were funny in the 80s who we'd like to see dusted off. More please.