Mel Smith’s gambling spiralled from £500 bets to £50,000 wagers, Griff Rhys Jones reveals 

Mel Smith’s millionaire windfall saw his gambling spiral when he traded £500 bets for massive £50,000 bets after selling production company TalkBack for £62 million, according to co-founder Griff Rhys Jones.

Suddenly having access to millions led the comedian to look for more thrills with much bigger sums and bigger risks.

In 1981, the duo of Smith and Jones formed the company that went on to produce influential British comedy shows, including I’m Alan Partridge, Smack the Pony and Da Ali G Show.

In 2000 they decided to sell to Pearson in a £62m sale, which meant – as well as £32m turnover the previous year – that Smith, Jones and managing director Peter Fincham pocketed around £20m each.

Speaking to Idler magazine about adjusting to life with new-found fortune, the 69-year-old Jones said: “Mel liked to make a bet and when he had a lot of money he liked to make a big bet .

Griff and Mel starring Pamela Stephenson and Rowan Atkinson on Not The Nine O’Clock News in 1980

‘I don’t know anything about gambling, never liked it.

‘But if he had been in the habit of putting £500 on the gee-gees before he got rich, the excitement of that would diminish when you’ve just made £22 million.

‘So it may be more exciting to take £50,000 bets.

“But I’m not judging him.”

Smith, who starred alongside Griff Rhys Jones on Not The Nine O’Clock News, died in 2013 at the age of 60 after suffering a heart attack.

He had been struggling with health problems for quite some time.

During an appearance on Celebrity Mastermind in 2009, Smith had looked weak and was speaking slurred.

He was taken to hospital several days after the show was taped and later said, “My throat specialist feared I had cancer. I spent three weeks in the hospital in agony. It turned out I had a virulent throat infection.’

Iconic: Griff Rhys Jones with Mel in their classic sketch series across the table

In 2000, Smith revealed that he had overcome a seven-year addiction to over-the-counter painkillers.

He said he took handfuls of the drug Nurofen Plus “like Smarties” after developing gout that spread from his feet to his wrists, elbows and knees, causing excruciating pain.

In 1999, he was taken to hospital with ulcers after the drugs stripped away his stomach lining.

The withdrawal symptoms caused him to go through a major depressive episode, but he was supported by his devoted wife Pam.

“It was my dark secret and I became deeply depressed,” he said at the time.

A director since his college days at Oxford, he had great success behind the camera with films such as Bean, The Tall Guy and Blackball.

Although he and Jones sold Talkback to Freemantle in 1999, Smith remained one of the key figures in British comedy.

In 2007, Smith took to the West End stage to play Wilbur Turnblad on the hit show Hairspray alongside Michael Ball.