Simon Dee
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Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd[1] (born 28 July 1935, England) is better known by his stage name Simon Dee. He was a British television interviewer and radio disc jockey who hosted a twice-weekly chat show Dee Time, but after moving from the BBC to London Weekend Television he was dropped and his career never recovered.
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[edit] Background and radio career
He was educated at Brighton College and Shrewsbury School. At first working as a bouncer in a coffee bar, an actor, a photographic assistant to Lord Snowdon, designer for Christian Dior and vacuum cleaner salesman, on Easter Day, 30 March 1964 his was the first voice to be heard on Radio Caroline, one of the 'radio pirates' broadcasting popular music from ships outside UK territorial waters, welcoming listeners to the station before handing over to the first programme which was presented by the only other DJ on the ship, Chris Moore. Within a few months, Dee became so famous that he was offered a job on the BBC Light Programme in 1965, introduding a late-night show on Saturdays. He also worked on Radio Luxembourg. He told a reporter at the time that he left Caroline "while the going was good" [2]. For a short while after BBC Radio 1 opened in 1967 he introduced the Monday edition of Midday Spin and sometimes presented Top of the Pops on BBC television.
[edit] Dee Time
In 1967 Dee began his early evening chat show on BBC television, which opened with the announcer, Len Martin (hotfoot from reading the football results on Grandstand), emulating Ed McMahon's introduction to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ('It's Siiiiimon Dee!') and closed with Dee driving off in a E-type Jaguar through the helter-skelter ramp of the Piccadilly Hotel, Manchester, accompanied by model, Lorna McDonald . The show was remarkably successful, with up to 18 million viewers. Actress Elizabeth Hurley has claimed that he was the model for Austin Powers in the spoof 1960s films of 1997-2002 [3]. Dee himself had cameo roles in some films, including The Italian Job (1969) and Doctor in Trouble (1970). He was first imprisoned for debt in March 1968, in Brixton prison where every time he left his cell, the wing would resound to the cry of 'It's Siiiiiimon Dee' from all the other prisoners. On this first internment he was so shocked that, while in the reception area waiting to be assigned to a cell, he swore that he would never get into debt again.
[edit] Move to ITV and reunion with O'Rahilly
Due to a disagreement with BBC bosses about the show, Dee decided to take up an offer to move to the independent channel London Weekend Television for £100,000 for two years from January 1970. However, he continued to fall out with that station's management, especially David Frost, who would not have approved his being hired if he had known about it. Dee's show was scheduled immediately after Frost's, which was another talk show, and Frost vetoed some items and guests which he felt would make the two shows too similar. Dee felt that Frost was deliberately sabotaging the show. Later that same year, he joined with his former Caroline boss, Ronan O'Rahilly, to campaign against the jamming of the Swiss-owned pirate ship, Radio Northsea International. This campaign issued a poster of Prime Minister Harold Wilson which caused some controversy.
[edit] Decline
After a bizarre interview with George Lazenby (who had been smoking cannabis and outlined his theories on the assassination of John F. Kennedy at length), the show was not recommissioned. No alternative format for Dee was tried and he disappeared from the airwaves; when he signed on for unemployment benefit at Fulham labour exchange, there was considerable press coverage. Unable to revive his show business career, he eventually took a job as a bus driver; he also had several court appearances and some short jail terms in the 1970s over more unpaid debts.
[edit] Later career
Dee has found some brief broadcasting jobs since that time. In the late 1970's, he was a DJ with the Reading-based Thames Valley Radio. Also, in 1970, he appeared in the British movie, "Doctor in Trouble", his second flm role (his first one having been a small part in the "The Italian Job" in 1966. In the late 1980s, he hosted Sounds of the 60s on BBC Radio 2. In 2003, Victor Lewis-Smith arranged for a one-off new live edition of Dee Time to be broadcast on Channel Four; it followed a documentary called Deeconstruction covering Dee's meteoric career. Only two complete editions of Dee Time survive in the BBC archives; the programme was transmitted live and, in those days, live programmes which were not due to be repeated were not normally recorded.
[edit] Clarification on background details
Simon's official Radio Caroline biography, released by the press office in 1964, said that he was born Carl Henty-Dodd in Ottawa, Canada, on 28th July 1935 and came to Britain at the age of 11. In fact this was not true. The book Whatever Happened To Simon Dee? reveals that he is officially Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd and was born in England. In fact, traditionally, all the males in the Henty-Dodd family had Cyril as a first name so they were called by their second name to differentiate them. So Simon Dee is actually known as Nicholas or Nicky to family and friends. The rest of the Caroline biography is largely accurate.[4].
[edit] Spoofs
The British comedian Benny Hill once spoofed Dee in his show. The character 'Tommy Tupper' and his chat show "Tupper Time" were blatantly based on Dee. In the sketch, Tupper's guests are a man who drops dead, another one who doesn't say anything, a priest who strolls in with his trousers unzipped and a very drunk actress.
The show was imitated also on Round the Horne, the BBC radio comedy show of the late 1960s. The words, "Siiiiiimon Dee", would be followed by Kenneth Horne's deadpan addition of a suffix such as "-pressed" or "-praved".
Monty Python's Flying Circus mentions Simon Dee in its "The North Minehead By-Election" sketch, where Mr "Hilter", "Bimmler", and "Ron Vibbentrop" are hiding out in a guesthouse. One of the other guests thinks he recognises them:
- "Haven't I seen you on the television?"
- "Nicht. Nein. No."
- "Simon Dee show, or was it Frosty?"
- "Nein. No."
[edit] Notes
- ^ Some references give his first name as Carl.
- ^ Quoted in Jackpot, July 1966
- ^ Tim Teeman, The Times, 11 November 2006
- ^ http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/djsd.htm 11 November 2006
[edit] External links
- Simon Dee at the Internet Movie Database
- Associated-Rediffusion TV (includes a clip of Deeconstruction)
- Page on Old Brightonians
- Radio Rewind on Simon Dee (Audio clips of rare recording of the Light Programme's Midday Spin show of 31st July, 1967)
- Smiths Crisps TV commercial from 1966
