Simon Dee
| Simon Dee | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd 28 July 1935 Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK |
| Died | 29 August 2009 (aged 74) Winchester, England |
| Cause of death | bone cancer |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Brighton College, Shrewsbury School |
| Known for | Disc Jockey, broadcaster |
| Spouse(s) | Beryl "Bunny" Cooper (1959) – registered using name Carl N Dodd; Sara M Le B Terry (1975); Judith C Wilson (1995) |
| Children |
Simon N Henty-Dodd (1962) Domino Nicola S Henty-Dodd (1966) Taliesin David Henty-Dodd (1976) Cyril George Henty-Dodd (1994) |
Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd (28 July 1935 – 29 August 2009), better known by his stage name Simon Dee, was a British television interviewer and radio disc jockey who hosted a twice-weekly BBC TV chat show, Dee Time, in the late 1960s. After moving to London Weekend Television (LWT) in 1970, he was dropped and his career never recovered.
He died of bone cancer in 2009.
Dee was born on 28 July 1935, in Manchester, Lancashire, the only child of Cyril Edward Dodd (1906–1980) and Doris Gwendoline Pilling (née Simon) (1907–1952) who married in 1934 in Salford (a Radio Caroline biography gave his birthplace as Ottawa, Canada). He was educated at Brighton College and Shrewsbury School.
He served his compulsory national service in the Royal Air Force photo-reconnaissance unit, taking aerial photographs of the combat zone during the 1956 Suez Crisis, and being wounded in the face by a sniper in Cyprus. While stationed in Baghdad with RAF Intelligence, he auditioned for British Forces Radio.
Demobilised in 1958, his first civilian jobs included bouncer in a coffee bar, actor, photographic assistant to Balfour de Havilland (dismissed when he loaded the wrong film into the camera for a fashion shoot and none of the photos came out), builders' labourer, leaf-sweeper in Hyde Park, and vacuum cleaner salesman.
In 1964 Dee joined Radio Caroline, a pirate radio ship broadcasting pop music from outside UK territorial waters. He witnessed the station's construction (and that of its rival station Radio Atlanta) at the Irish port of Greenore, and sailed with the ship to its anchorage off the coast of Essex. On 28 March, Holy Saturday, his was the first live voice on the radio station, welcoming listeners and handing over to the only other DJ on the ship at the time, Chris Moore, for the opening programme. (The first voice heard on the station, in pre-recorded promotions, was allegedly that of John Junkin).
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