Victor Lewis-Smith

Victor Lewis-Smith is a British television producer, critic and prankster. Known for his acerbic wit and biting criticism (often in questionable taste, and muted slightly by his tendency to repeat the same gags over and over again), he currently writes a weekly page for the Daily Mirror and edits the "Funny Old World" column in Private Eye. He gained notoriety whilst working for the Evening Standard. where he still contributes daily television reviews and occasional restaurant reviews.

Lewis-Smith is famous for his hoax phone calls. Some of his more entertaining hoax calls include:

• Telephoning the Monopolies and Mergers Commission and asking them why there was only one such organisation.
• Ringing the White House, and using the synthesized speech system of a computer to impersonate Stephen Hawking and demanding to speak to the President.

He has made three short-lived shows for British television:

• Inside Victor Lewis-Smith (1993) (He is a virtually unseen character in his own show)
• TV Offal (1997)
• Ads Infinitum (1998- 1999)

He also made several surreal radio commercials.

In the late 1990s he released a CD entitled "Tested on Humans for Irritancy."

He also produced and narrated a documentary about eccentric journalist Benjy Pell, who dished the dirt on public figures by literally raking through their garbage to find incriminating documents. Cynics might accuse Lewis-Smith of having invented Pell, but he and his exclusive stories appear to be genuine.

Pell probably deserves a page all to himself...

"Inside the Magic Rectangle", a book collecting his early Evening Standard TV reviews, is co-credited to Paul Sparkes. It seems likely that Sparkes may be a silent partner in all of Lewis-Smith's projects.

Lewis-Smith is the credited executive producer of a series of short programs called "21st Century Bach". Each one features one of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ works, filmed in performance with some odd visual tricks, such as mirrors along the organist's hands. The series started on BBC2 in June 2003, and is expected to take three years.