The entertainment world is mourning the loss of Warren Lakin, a beloved and influential comedy promoter who was the long-term partner of the celebrated comedian and broadcaster Linda Smith. Lakin passed away at the age of 71 from a respiratory tract infection.
A Life in Live Entertainment
For decades, Warren Lakin was a driving force behind the UK's live comedy and performance scene. He spent many years promoting tours and shows for a vast array of comedians, singers, poets, and speakers. Most recently, he was a director of Lakin McCarthy Productions, the company he ran with Mike McCarthy.
His roster of talent was impressive, including comedy legends like Barry Cryer, Susan Calman, Andy Hamilton, and Robin Ince, as well as figures such as Ruby Wax and Jon Ronson. However, his most significant professional and personal partnership was with Linda Smith, the revered Radio 4 stalwart known for her sharp wit.
Curating a Comic Legacy
Lakin met Smith in the early 1980s when both were founder members of the left-wing Sheffield Popular Theatre. The group not only produced plays but also hosted cabaret nights where Smith performed her first stand-up routines. Lakin was by her side throughout her rise to national fame.
After Smith's untimely death from ovarian cancer in 2006, Lakin dedicated himself to preserving her memory with characteristic vigour. He authored a well-received biography, Driving Miss Smith, in 2007. He also produced CDs and a book of her material and organised a series of tribute shows that raised funds for Target Ovarian Cancer.
His most enduring contribution was donating her personal archive to the University of Kent. This generous act directly inspired the creation of the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive, a major repository for the history of UK stand-up. From 2015, he also co-ran the annual Linda Smith Lecture in Canterbury, featuring speakers like Mark Thomas, Jo Brand, and Bridget Christie.
From Hackney to Headline Acts
Born into a Jewish family in Hackney, London, Warren was the son of Sheila, a secretary, and Leslie Lakin, a bookkeeper. He grew up in the Southend area and attended Westcliff High School for Boys. His first career was in journalism with the East London and Essex newspaper group.
Politically active from a young age, he became an NUJ shop steward at just 20. His passion for promotion soon surfaced, and he began organising shows for bands and theatre groups. In the late 1970s, he joined the theatre company Cast, working on their New Variety shows in London venues that were pivotal to the birth of the alternative comedy circuit.
He moved to Sheffield in 1983 to study but, after meeting Linda Smith, abandoned his degree to focus on Sheffield Popular Theatre and his promotion work. The couple returned to London a decade later, where Lakin co-founded the promotion company Lakin McCarthy in 2008.
Colleagues remember him as a uniquely warm, chatty, and determined figure in showbusiness, whose phone conversations were legendary for their length and breadth, covering everything from jazz and politics to cricket and his beloved Arsenal FC.
Warren Lakin is survived by his partner, Debra Reay, his brother, Tony, and his sister, Tina.
