Tributes paid to broadcaster and radio favourite Victor Lewis-Smith

Broadcaster, producer and comedy presenter Victor Lewis-Smith has died at the age of 65.

The Borkowski PR agency said he died in Bruges, in Belgium, on Saturday following a short illness.

Publicist Mark Borkowski said: “I am in deep shock, having to issue the news about the death of Victor Lewis Smith. Struggling to come to terms with the loss of a unique and irreplaceable talent.”

He went on to say: “When I was asked to issue the death notice – I couldn’t process it adequately. I had to check it wasn’t a bizarre stunt – something we often mused about. Let’s not forget Victor managed to persuade a BBC tea-lady’ to represent him at a BBC disciplinary hearing.”

Victor Lewis-Smith was well-known to radio listeners and broadcasters. He started in local radio before moving to the BBC. He hosted his first programme for BBC Radio 1 in 1988 under the pseudonym Steve Nage, parodying the Simon Bates-style mid-Atlantic delivery of Radio 1 disc jockeys of the time.

His company Associated-Rediffusion made two series of the comedy show Victor Lewis-Smith for BBC Radio 1, for which he won a Best Comedy Radio Programme award in the 1990 British Comedy Awards.

He went on to co-create and narrated TV Offal in the late 1990s, which used radio jingles from JAM to introduce the different segments.

Victor Lewis-Smith is survived by his wife, Virginia, and his daughter, Lucia.