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A Birmingham-based BBC producer who created smash-hit motoring show Top Gear has died aged 87.

Derek Smith hit on the idea for the programme as he looked out over the car park at the Corporation’s old Birmingham Pebble Mill base.

And the father-of-two’s son Graham also made a mark on the show – by suggesting the iconic theme tune Jessica, by The Allman Brothers Band.

Graham said: “One day my father was looking out of the office at the car park and he thought the BBC should do a motoring and car show, with items on all motoring matters such as road safety and car tests. The name would be Top Gear.

"He came home and asked me if I had any ideas for the titles music. I suggested an Allman Brothers instrumental from an album I had.

"He said 'Yes, that will do, write down the details' and then he went into the BBC record library to make a copy."

Top Gear began with nine monthly episodes shown in the Midlands from 1977, before being networked on BBC2.

Derek, from Sutton Coldfield, continued as a series producer until 1986.

Top Gear's Richard Hammond visits Birmingham Children's Hospital

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He worked with presenters including Angela Rippon, Tom Coyne and William Woollard.

Derek joined BBC Midlands in 1957 and went on to make films about the Armed Forces, among them the 1964 documentary Soldier in the Sun about the Royal Anglian Regiment in Aden and Yemen.

He also made a documentary in 1969 about the history of the aircraft carrier called The Flight Deck Story, which he shot onboard HMS Eagle and USS Enterprise off the coast of Vietnam.

The same year, Mission to Hell followed the-then Bishop of Birmingham Leonard Wilson returning to Singapore to tell his story of wartime imprisonment by the Japanese and to meet his former torturer.

Closer to home, Just a Year followed three of the survivors of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings during their long recovery from injury.

Derek also created other formats including Now Get Out Of That, where two teams tested their survival abilities and solved mental tests.

He also made children’s piano competition Major Minor and The Lost River Of Gaping Gill, a film about cavers searching for an underground river in Yorkshire.

Graham, now 59 and living in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, said: “He conceived these programmes because he was in a wonderful position as a BBC producer.

“He felt he had the best job in the world.

“He could think of an idea for a programme and he would be allowed to go and make it.

"It's a tribute to him that such a diverse range of subjects became successful programmes."

Derek spent two years in Saudi Arabia as a programme controller after leaving the BBC.

He then lived in Spain for five years before returning to Sutton, working part-time as a historian on tours to the sites of the Normandy Landings until well into his 70s.

Derek died of natural cases on March 17, also leaving behind another son, Malcolm, and his wife Norma.

His funeral takes place on April 8 at 12.45pm at Streetly Crematorium.