Douglas Smith (broadcaster)

Douglas Arthur Smith[1] (11 February 1924 – 15 October 1972)[2] was a British radio announcer and comedian who spent 25 years with the BBC.[3] He began his broadcasting career with the BBC European Service (now the World Service) in 1946 and later worked as an announcer and newsreader on the Home Service and the Third Programme.[2] He is perhaps best known as the formal announcer on Beyond Our Ken (1958–1964), its more famous successor Round the Horne (1965–1968) and the short-lived Stop Messing About (1969–1970), where his "BBC accent" was used to comic effect.[2] Listeners remember him for advertising Dobbiroids (a fictional product for horses) and the huge number of naïve sound effects he made to assist in the development of humorous and often bizarre plots.[2] Smith's performance of "Nobody Loves a Fairy When She's Forty" is one of the best-remembered moments of Round the Horne. Many of his roles were portrayals of inanimate objects, e.g., volcanoes.

A native of Croydon, he died aged 48 in Kingston upon Thames.[3]

References
  1. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
  2. Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p. 370. ISBN 1-84854-195-3.
  3. "Mr Douglas Smith". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 16 October 1972. p. 14.


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