Simon Dee – Nostalgia Central

Born in Ottawa, Canada, on 28 July 1935, Simon Dee – his real name was Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd – went to school at Shrewsbury in England. On leaving school, he tried his hand at several jobs, including that of lorry driver and as a bouncer. His first public appearance was in the ITV play Touch of a Dead Hand. 

For a while, he also worked as a photographer’s assistant with Anthony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Snowdon).

A meeting with Ronan O’Rahilly led to Simon Dee joining Britain’s first pirate radio ship Radio Caroline, uttering the first words on the station on Easter Sunday 1964 – “This is Radio Caroline on 199, your all-day music station.”

He stayed with the ship until mid-1965, when he had a disagreement with the captain.

After leaving Radio Caroline, he established a considerable reputation and became one of Britain’s top disc spinners. He had a marathon Saturday-night show on the BBC Light Programme and also hosted Midday Spin and Housewives’ Choice.

He presented shows like Simon’s Scene, Battle of the Giants and Night and Dee on Radio Luxembourg at the same time.

In 1967, Dee began his early-evening chat show, Dee Time, on BBC1, and at the height of his fame, he was the highest-paid entertainer on British television. But his sudden fame and fortune led to a series of much-publicised personal difficulties.

Seeking more money and creative control, he defected to London Weekend Television, where he frequently clashed with management, showed open arrogance, and began using his live broadcast platform to voice controversial political opinions. LWT dropped him after just a few months.

Because of his difficult reputation, major TV and radio networks blacklisted him. Within a couple of years, he went from living in a Chelsea mansion to signing on for unemployment benefits.

Unable to revive his career, Dee took on various ordinary jobs, including bus driving. He served a brief prison sentence in 1974 for refusing to pay rates on his flat as a protest against the government.

For the rest of his life, he lived largely in reclusion in Winchester, remaining bitter about how quickly the entertainment industry had cast him aside. He died of bone cancer on 29 August 2009, aged 74.