Forty years of Nancy Banks Smith

In the Guardian, Michael McNay celebrates the 40-year career of TV critic Nancy Banks Smith.

A shrewd, unprejudiced writer, Nancy created the art of TV reviewing as tangential knockabout comedy – a mode that set the agenda, and has been followed ever since but never equalled. She doesn't do the day-in-day-out stint any more, but Nancy remains by a distance the funniest columnist writing, better than the stuff she writes about.

There's also a selection of her reviews and tributes from actors, producers and writers including Andrew Davies:

Nancy manages to convey her infectious enthusiasm for TV, good or bad. I've always felt honoured to be noticed by her. Almost always, she identifies the key moments in a show and expresses exactly the way they come across.