Neville Smith

Neville Smith (born January 1940 in Liverpool) is a British screenwriter and actor who has contributed to numerous television productions, radio plays and movies. After studying politics and history at the Hull University Smith worked as a teacher. Subsequently, he became an announcer and from 1965 he wrote for BBC Radio. He took part in a total of 57 radio dramas. In 1964 Smith made his TV acting debut in the premiere episode of the Granada-ITV comedy drama series Villains He was also seen in the "A Land of Fear" episode of the Doctor Who story entitled The Reign of Terror. In 1968 he wrote his first screenplay, The Golden Vision for the BBC TV series The Wednesday Play In the following years he appeared in episodes from television series like Cluff, Z-Cars, Thirty-Minute Theatre, Softly Softly, Her Majesty's Pleasure and The Wednesday Play. In 1971 the film Gumshoe, based on Smith's novel of the same name, was the first major film directorial assignment for Stephen Frears. Smith also played a small role in the film, the character Arthur whom Albert Finney consults about the gun before entering the docks. In 1977 he wrote the screenplay to Apaches, a short documentary by John Mackenzie, about children playing on farms, which is a notorious public information film. Smith played the protagonist in his 1979 Play for Today about the death of Elvis Presley, Long Distance Information, directed by Stephen Frears. Smith's last appearances were in Wish You Were Here (1987) by David Leland and in the 1990 TV film Friends in Space.