Griff Rhys Jones - Tops with this Smith

I’ve already written about one Oxbridge-educated member of a successful TV comedy group who proceeded to enjoy a follow-up career making documentaries. But, if anything, Michael Palin has actually been eclipsed in recent years by Griff Rhys Jones. 

The latter has certain advantages. He’s closer to my age (albeit still seven years older), was like me once employed by the BBC, went to school in my home town of Brentwood and was born in my current city of residence, Cardiff. What’s not to like?

Also unlike Mr Palin, I have witnessed Griff on the West End stage, performing in An Absolute Turkey back in 1994. It still puzzles me why, despite the stellar comedy cast and Rhys-Jones’ Olivier award, I can recollect remarkably little about the show. 

By that time, he was a TV veteran. I first came across him in 1980 when he replaced Chris Langham in the established satirical comedy quartet of Not The Nine o’Clock News. Forty years later his racist chump of a cop might still strike a chilling chord in this era of Black Lives Matter protests. Back then we Exeter students just found it funny, despite the notorious reputation of the Met Police’s Special Patrol Group. 

The show ran for, I think, three seasons. Rowan Atkinson’s unique style was always the most eye-catching but occasionally Griff moved to the fore, such as in this word-mangling courtroom sketch (“A tissue a tissue….”). Of course, NTNOCN also launched the career of Mel Smith, with whom Griff forged an enduring writing, acting and production relationship. Their Talkback company made a whole raft of successful entertainment programmes, from Brass Eye and Alan Partridge to Da Ali G Show and Through The Keyhole. It also made their own comedy series beginning with Alas Smith and Jones. 

It wasn’t as topical as NTNOCN nor usually, to be honest, as funny, but there were a few decent sketches. However, the duo became most associated with their ‘head-to-heads’. With Griff playing the gormless, man-child on the right and Mel the only slightly more intelligent one sitting opposite, these scenes, whether they were discussing sperm donation or The Beatles, were for several years amongst the most amusing on the Beeb. 

In 1984 they also guested in the classic ‘Bambi’ episode of The Young Ones In what in retrospect was a veritable ‘Who’s Who?’ of eighties alternative comedy (including Ben Elton, Emma Thompson, Fry and Laurie), Griff portrayed a version of University Challenge host Bamber ‘Bambi’ Gascoigne trying to referee the contest between Scumbag vs Footlights colleges. This half-hour on BBC2 had everything, from Ade Edmondson literally losing his head, to Motorhead blasting out ‘Ace of Spades’ in the living room. And Griff Rhys Jones played the title character! 

A year later they found themselves contributing to musical history. Most people will be familiar with Queen’s legendary Live Aid set at Wembley, whether from personal experience or the recent Freddie Mercury biopic, but guess who performed the on-stage introduction? Yes, there were Mel and Griff in ill-fitting police uniforms, battling against the band’s deafening soundcheck, warning the crowd about the noise levels before Smith announced: “Her Majesty, Queen….” So began one of the most famous rock performances of all time. 

Griff starred with Mel in a few comedy films that decade but also appeared without him amongst a formidable cast, including David Jason and Ian Richardson, for ITV’s Porterhouse Blue. Tom Sharpe’s riotous novels were all the rage back then but being the perverse oddball that I am, they weren’t quite so hilarious in my eyes. I actually took against Jason’s mischievous porter Skullion but I don’t remember any opinion about Rhys Jones’ Cornelius Carrington. 

I have clearer recollections of some of his roles in TV commercials. He’s been in great demand over the years, flogging us anything from Vauxhall cars to Prudential pensions, but surely the highlights were his adverts for Holsten Pils beer “where the sugar turns to alcohol”. Griff would be spliced into scenes with black-and-white movie idols from Wayne to Bogart but it’s the one from 1987 co-starring Marilyn Monroe which stands out. 

There have been straight roles, too. I can’t find anything on YouTube but my diary records I watched him star in a Screen One film Ex in ’91 and just a few years ago, he gave a sensitive performance in the Beeb’s ensemble drama series Ordinary Lies as a middle-aged man suddenly confronted with a long-lost son. Like so many comedians Griff has demonstrated many times he doesn’t need loads of jokes to be a good actor. 

Which brings me back to another Palin-esque change of direction in the new millennium. In the early Noughties I was captivated by a new BBC2 series called Restoration. Each week, Griff introduced reports on, I think, three endangered buildings. With UK TV audiences now accustomed to voting for budding pop stars or moronic Big Brother housemates, viewers of this altogether more upmarket programme were invited to vote for the historic relic they felt most worthy of saving. In some respects, everyone was a winner, as the publicity generated often resulted in desperately-needed investment. Actually I happened to be at Hampton Court Palace when Griff was rehearsing a link for the 2004 grand final but I didn’t give him a wave. I doubt the US and Japanese tourists would have recognised him! 

Since then he has campaigned off-screen for the restoration of many Victorian buildings and has made documentaries on a huge range of other topics, from art treasures to mountains, great cities and literary heroes. Most were off my radar but I did witness several programmes featuring Griff on or around waterways.  I dipped a toe into his 2009 Rivers series and in 2006 watched the whole of the original travel series Three Men in a Boat. 

This featured Griff’s beautiful replica wooden skiff, in which he, Rory McGrath and Dara O’Briain rowed up the Thames in a recreation of Jerome K Jerome’s novel. Inevitably there were some amusing exchanges but some of the best bits came from their encounters with people and places along the route, and all seemed suitably starstruck on entering Dave Gilmour’s famous waterborne studio.

Griff Rhys Jones does have a genuine common touch, more even than the estimable ex-Python. Also, he is even more inclined to get his hands dirty – and feet wet – during the making of his documentaries. I’m pretty sure Michael never dared participate in the notorious Fastnet yacht race. 

Mel Smith is alas no longer with us but with Rowan Atkinson an increasingly bizarre right-wing grump and Pamela Stephenson Connolly a successful psychologist and writer in the USA, Griff Rhys Jones remains one of our greatest ex-Not the Nine O’Clock News relics and should he ever find his TV career waning I would definitely vote for Griff's restoration!