Linda Smith (comedian)

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Image:Lindasmith.jpg Linda Smith (25 January 1958 – 27 February 2006) was a British stand-up comic and comedy writer. She was born in Erith, south-east London, but had no particular fondness for her home town, once joking, "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham." [1]

Educated at Erith College (now Bexley College), she gained a place at Sheffield University, graduated in English and Drama and joined a professional theatre company. Turning to comedy, she was awarded the 1987 Hackney Empire New London Comic Award and performed on the Edinburgh Fringe before breaking into radio comedy. She was a regular panellist on The News Quiz and Just a Minute, and appeared on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Have I Got News For You, Mock the Week, Countdown and QI. She wrote and starred in her own Radio 4 sitcom, Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting. In 2002 she was voted "Wittiest Living Person" by listeners to BBC Radio 4's Word of Mouth. Her obituaries described her style as beguiling, apparently vulnerable but often waspish. She excelled at deadpan diatribes about everyday irritations. Her most regularly quoted joke was probably her description of former home secretary David Blunkett as being "Satan's bearded folk singer".

After appearing on Radio 4's Devout Sceptics to discuss her beliefs she was asked by the British Humanist Association to become president of the society, a role she occupied with great commitment from 2004 until her death.

Smith died of ovarian cancer, aged 48, on 27 February 2006. Her memorial meeting at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East on 10 March was dedicated to the BHA. Further memorial events will appear in due course on http://www.lindasmithcomedy.co.uk

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