Mike Smith dies at 59

He fell out of fashion and TV gave him up. I used to follow him on twitter where, sadly, bitterness and resentment seemed to have consumed him.

He was still involved in TV, he ran a company providing helicopters for aerial shots

He would give you a deal on installing satellite dishes too.

Yes. Mike moved behind the cameras and ran Flying TV. http://www.flyingtv.co.uk

He was a busy helicopter pilot and cameraman apparently, with FlyingTV providing all the aerial filming services for Top Gear according to a tweet from Jeremy Clarkson last night:
https://twitter.com/jeremyclarkson/status/495689200050900992

What a depressing load of replies to that tweet. I think Flying TV do aerial filming for virtually every show on TV, they are a very successful company because they had all the various licences for flying over Central London and so on. Testament to Mike's hard work, no doubt. Mike frequently flew the choppers as well, when they had the Buncefield fire a few years back Mike got the footage and BBC News actually spoke to him live while he was doing it. There's an interview with him somewhere online where he said he used to like doing that kind of thing and he remembered his news training from Breakfast Time.

It's true that in the mid-nineties he got a bit disillusioned with the telly, he left Hearts of Gold and slagged off Esther Rantzen and he also applied to be Controller of BBC1. But clearly he enjoyed great success elsewhere, I think it's ridiculous to say he was bitter (I found him very amusing on Twitter) and he had a wonderful relationship with Sarah. When I went to the Blue Peter anniversary event at BAFTA a few years back Mike came along with Saz for the ride and it was great to see him there.

Some of those comments are truly shocking, who says the art of conversation is on its knees... Oh, hmm.

I've seen a lot of very nice comments from colleagues and friends of colleagues, it seems mike was very highly regarded professionally. I certainly never found him too convincing as host on That's Showbusiness -somehow to me he didn't seem to be quite at the helm of the show as, say, Stephen Fry is on QI.

I think I read in the BBC website obituary that a lot of the TV work he was being offered was simple too 'middle aged' for him, which is how he slipped away from on air work and more into the world of helicopter and aerial photography.

Here's a nice story from the comedian Mark Hurst, which illustrates that Mike was a very generous host who gave the guests plenty of opportunities to shine...
http://hurstaka.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/that-was-showbusiness/