Linda Smith (comedian) - Illness, Death and Legacy

Illness, Death and Legacy

On 27 February 2006, Smith died as a consequence of ovarian cancer at the age of 48. She had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer three and a half years earlier but, not wanting to be thought of as a patient or a victim, she didn't want people to know. Before she died she chose that her funeral be humanist and her memorial at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, on 10 March, was dedicated to the BHA. Her life and work were honoured at the British Academy Television Awards in 2006. The first episode of Dawn French's Girls Who Do: Comedy was dedicated to the memory of Linda Smith. Her obituaries described her style as beguiling, apparently vulnerable and whimsical, but often waspish. She excelled at deadpan diatribes about everyday irritations. A typical and frequently quoted joke was her labelling of former home secretary David Blunkett as "Satan's bearded folk singer". She also famously retorted in response to Clive Anderson's suggestion that Jeffrey Archer should not be given "the oxygen of publicity" that "I'm not that happy with him having the oxygen of oxygen, actually".

Two tribute gigs were held in her memory. The first took place on 14 May 2006 at the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, In Praise of an English Radical, the second on 4 June 2006 at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London entitled Tippy Top: An Evening of Linda Smith's Favourite Things. In August 2006, Andy Hamilton presented a BBC Radio 4 tribute entitled Linda Smith: A Modern Radio Star. An anthology on CD, entitled I Think the Nurses Are Stealing My Clothes: The Very Best of Linda Smith, was released in November 2006 as was a book with the same name. A tribute show of the same name was aired on BBC Radio 4 on 10 November 2006. Smith's sell-out stage show Wrap Up Warm has been available on CD since November 2006.

Linda Smith was working on a third series of A Brief History of Timewasting before she became incapacitated by her illness. As a tribute the online radio station BBC 7 ran the previous two series, the first all on one day.