Neil Hodgson Shand (3 March 1934 – 14 April 2018) was a British television comedy writer.[1]

He was born in Luton to parents from Glasgow, the son of a Vauxhall employee and a dressmaker.[2] Neil was the eldest of three boys.

Raised in a "two up two down" house, he passed the 11-plus, and had a positive experience of attending a grammar school. Virtually blind in one eye, his eyesight was saved by an operation at 14 on the day the National Health Service was founded (5 July 1948).[2] He began to work for a local paper, the Luton Gazette, after leaving school.[3] Briefly working for the nationals while still having the day job in Luton, he managed to gain a regular job at the Daily Sketch after finding details of the 21st birthday party of a son of the Aga Khan at the Savoy Hotel.[3]

Shand was later a journalist for the Daily Mail and Daily Express, before moving into comedy writing in the 1960s.[4] Shortly after being sacked from the Mail for being drunk once too often, he ran into the documentary maker Michael Ingrams, who eventually introduced him to Bernard Braden, for whom Shand first began to write humorous material.[3]

Shand worked extensively with David Frost, beginning with The Frost Programme in 1967.[5] Subsequent work with Frost included ITV's coverage of Apollo 11 landing on the Moon in 1969, and spells in New York working on Frost's American talk show as a "creative consultant".[2]

His work with impressionist Mike Yarwood began around the same time with the sketch show Three of a Kind (1967).[5] Shand also wrote for such acts as Spike Milligan, Kenny Everett, Bob Monkhouse, The Two Ronnies and Jasper Carrott (on Carrott Confidential).[1][4] He was a member of BBC staff for many years.[6][7]

Shand married Judith Keppel in 1985; the marriage ended in 1987.[8] He died on 14 April 2018, aged 84, in Whitton, North Lincolnshire, where he had lived since 2003.[1][9]

Books

  • Melting Pot (1983) – with Spike Milligan
  • 1956 and All That (1984) – with Ned Sherrin
  • True Brit (1992) – with Jim Davidson

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Comedy writer Neil Shand dies aged 84". BBC News. 15 April 2018. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 "Neil Shand obituary". The Times. 5 June 2018. Retrieved 5 June 2018. (subscription required)
  3. 1 2 3 Freeman, Sarah (26 February 2017). "Neil Shand: My life with the old guard of British comedy". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  4. 1 2 Slot, Owen (22 August 1993). "Feeding the habit". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  5. 1 2 Quinn, Mchael (25 April 2018). "Obituary: Neil Shand – 'one of the most successful comedy writers of the past half-century'". The Stage. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  6. ↑ Terrace, Vincent (1985). Encyclopedia of Television: Series, Pilots and Specials 1974–1984. New York: Zoetrope. p. 225. ISBN 978-0918432612.
  7. ↑ Scudamore, Pauline (2003) [1985]. Spike: A Biography. The History Press. ISBN 978-0750932547.
  8. ↑ Woods, Judith (4 August 2001). "'Thank God, I don't have to move to France'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  9. ↑ "Culture stars who died in 2018: from Neil Shand to Harry Anderson". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 18 April 2018. (subscription required)
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