It’s easy to forget that Mel Smith wasn’t always staring into the face of Griff Rhys Jones, that he was on Not The Nine O’Clock News first, and that he was actually in a double act with someone else.
Mel Smith and Bob Goody met in the mid-70s, and put on a play together at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1977. It was called ‘Ave You ‘Eard The One About Joey Baker?, and was staged at the Traverse.
In 1978, they performed the play once again, this time at the King’s Head.
In October of 1978, they announced a new show.
They wrote a version of Jekyll And Hyde in 1979 …
… which became embroiled, in a minor way, in an Equity pay dispute.
Here we learn who was in that play.
And throughout that same year, Smith and Goody themselves put on individual performances of their late-night comedy show Irony In Dorking.
It’s unclear whether or not Smith and Goody themselves performed at a re-staging of the Jekyll And Hyde show in Birmingham in 1980, but take note of the headline …
Anyway, by the end of the year, the duo appeared on screen together in the Thames show Smith And Goody, a show for children.
We know from this article that the series was filmed in May of 1980.
So after that, the duo announced a new play called The Gambler.
And this play had a West End revival in 1986.
