After a brief illness, humorist Victor Lewis-Smith, who for almost 30 years wrote the Funny Old World column for Private Eye, passed away. He was 65.
Lewis-Smith died in Bruges over the weekend, and his agent and publicist Mark Borkowski tweeted: ” “I am in deep shock … Struggling to come to terms with the loss of a unique and irreplaceable talent.”
Lewis-Smith was well-known for making prank calls and appeared in TV comedy sketch shows, such as Inside Victor Lewis-Smith on BBC2 in the 1990s.
Using the same computerized voice technique as the professor, he pretended to be astronomer Stephen Hawking and impersonated Diana, Princess of Wales. After being held in a safe for two decades, their whole conversation—which touched on Charles and the Clinton family—was revealed in 2015.
Along with writing restaurant reviews for the Guardian, he also reviewed television shows and cuisine.
Lewis-Smith started his broadcasting career at BBC Radio Medway before enrolling at the University of York to study music in the late 1970s. Later, in the 1980s, he worked as a producer for BBC Radio 4’s Midweek and Start the Week programs.
Victor Lewis-Smith’s funeral, burial service, pictures, date, time, venue
Lewis-Smith’s family is yet to make an official statement about his funeral arrangements. We’ll keep you informed as information becomes available to us. Keep an eye on this page for more.
