Neil Shand

He was born in Luton to parents from Glasgow, the son of a Vauxhall employee and a dressmaker.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/neil-shand-obituary-b8whh3kq3|title=Neil Shand obituary|work=The Times|date=5 June 2018|access-date=5 June 2018}} {{subscription required}} 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). He began to work for a local paper, the Luton Gazette, after leaving school.{{cite news|last=Freeman|first=Sarah|url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/analysis/neil-shand-my-life-with-the-old-guard-of-british-comedy-1-8410149|title=Neil Shand: My life with the old guard of British comedy|work=The Yorkshire Post|date=26 February 2017|accessdate=18 April 2018}} 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.

Shand was later a journalist for the Daily Mail and Daily Express, before moving into comedy writing in the 1960s.{{cite news|last=Slot|first=Owen|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy--feeding-the-habit-unlike-many-comedians-jasper-carrott-writes-a-lot-of-his-own-material-but-no-one-writer-can-feed-the-massive-appetite-of-a-regular-television-series-own-slot-meets-some-of-the-other-men-behind-the-mouth-1462809.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy--feeding-the-habit-unlike-many-comedians-jasper-carrott-writes-a-lot-of-his-own-material-but-no-one-writer-can-feed-the-massive-appetite-of-a-regular-television-series-own-slot-meets-some-of-the-other-men-behind-the-mouth-1462809.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Feeding the habit|work=The Independent|date=22 August 1993|accessdate=18 April 2018}} 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.

Shand worked extensively with David Frost, beginning with The Frost Programme in 1967.{{cite news|last=Quinn|first=Mchael|url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/2018/obituary-neil-shand/|title=Obituary: Neil Shand – 'one of the most successful comedy writers of the past half-century'|work=The Stage|date=25 April 2018|accessdate=5 June 2018}} 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".

His work with impressionist Mike Yarwood began around the same time with the sketch show Three of a Kind (1967). Shand also wrote for such acts as Spike Milligan, Kenny Everett, Bob Monkhouse, The Two Ronnies and Jasper Carrott (on Carrott Confidential). He was a member of BBC staff for many years.{{cite book|last=Terrace|first=Vincent|title=Encyclopedia of Television: Series, Pilots and Specials 1974–1984|location=New York|publisher=Zoetrope|year=1985|isbn=978-0918432612|page=225}}{{cite book|last=Scudamore|first=Pauline|title=Spike: A Biography|publisher=The History Press|year=2003|orig-year=1985|isbn=978-0750932547}}

Shand married Judith Keppel in 1985; the marriage ended in 1987.{{cite news|last=Woods|first=Judith|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4724890/Thank-God-I-dont-have-to-move-to-France.html|title='Thank God, I don't have to move to France'|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|date=4 August 2001|accessdate=18 April 2018}} He died on 14 April 2018, aged 84, in Whitton, North Lincolnshire, where he had lived since 2003.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/culture-stars-died-2018-motorheads-fast-eddie-tocomedian-bella/neil-shand/ |title=Culture stars who died in 2018: from Neil Shand to Harry Anderson|website=Telegraph.co.uk|accessdate=18 April 2018}} {{subscription required}}

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

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Category:1934 births

Category:2018 deaths

Category:British comedy writers

Category:British television show creators

Category:People from Luton

Category:British male journalists

Category:20th-century British journalists

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