[3] He performed national service in the Royal Air Force and trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
[11] Smethurst made a guest appearance as Davenport in Britain's longest-running television sitcom Last of the Summer Wine in 1997.
[12] Smethurst played four different characters in Coronation Street: a brewery drayman in 1961, and in January 1967 Percy Bridge, who tried to con Elsie Tanner.
[15] Smethurst worked on stage in Australia when he appeared in the play Run for Your Wife during 1987 and 1988, and the production toured the country.
[17] In the episode, Hyacinth Bucket tries to get Smethurst's character to relinquish a public telephone booth, which leads her husband, Richard, to yell at her forcefully for the only time in the entire series.