The writer, broadcaster and satirist Victor Lewis-Smith has died, aged 65.
The former Independent columnist and documentary-maker died in Bruges, Belgium, on Saturday (10 December) after a short illness.
Born in Essex, Lewis-Smith began his career at BBC Radio Medway. After working at Radio York, he moved to Radio 4 where he was a staff producer for Midweek and Start the Week during the mid-1980s.
Lewis-Smith went on to work as a film, TV and radio producer, predominantly through his production company Associated Rediffusion Productions Limited.
He worked on Spitting Image and the short-lived Channel 4 comedy show TV Offal.
He was also a restaurant critic and columnist. He wrote a regular column for Private Eye, and was the chief TV critic at the Evening Standard for 15 years.
In 1993, Lewis-Smith co-wrote and presented the BBC sketch show Inside Victor Lewis-Smith, which starred Roger Lloyd Pack, Annette Badland, Moya Brady, Tim Barlow, Nickolas Grace and George Raistrick.
Lewis-Smith was also known for prank-calling public figures and businesses with hoaxes. In one infamous stunt, he tricked Princess Diana into believing she was having a conversation with Professor Stephen Hawking, using the same voice technology as the late astrophysicist. The audio was released on Lewis-Smith’s YouTube channel in 2015.
Another object of his pranks was Jimmy Savile’s TV show Jim’ll Fix It. The calls were often played during Lewis-Smith’s radio shows, and comics such as Sacha Baron-Cohen cited him as an inspiration.
In recent years he worked as an executive producer of documentaries, whose subjects included Peter Cook, Peter Sellers, Kenneth Williams and Tony Hancock.
Last year, he executively produced Steve McQueen: The Lost Movie for Sky, which was presented by David Letterman.
Lewis-Smith’s final project, titled Hitler’s Jazz Band, will air on Sky Arts on Wednesday (14 December).
He is survived by his wife Virginia and daughter Lucia.
