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Simon Dee - What A Life!
Written by Paul Rance
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Simon Dee - what a life!
In 1988, Simon Dee gave a plug to a little mag of mine, 'Peace & Freedom'. Can't think of too many big names who'd have given my subversive artistic bent the time of day to be honest.
Being burdened with the name Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd, Simon Dee had already had an interesting life even before becoming a '60s icon. His Mother was seen by his Father in bed with two men from the BBC. She died of cancer when Simon was only 17. He witnessed the Suez crisis in 1956 when he was in the RAF, and was also shot in the face by a sniper in Cyprus.
After leaving the Forces, Simon Dee, who was still plain Cyril, had scores of jobs, before a friend opened up some doors for him, and which he walked through into Radio Caroline in 1965. After a few months he had switched to BBC Radio, and the mother of the influential Bill Cotton Jr was bending her son's ear about the young Dee's talents. By the end of 1966, Simon Dee was presenting 'Top Of The Pops', and a few months later he was one of the biggest stars that British TV had yet seen, when the iconic 'Dee Time' pulled in as many as 18 million viewers. The show ran from April 1967 to December 1969, but when Simon Dee started to push his luck, and made it clear ITV were after him, he wasn't offered more money, but was allowed to leave. His ITV show sank like a stone, and so did Simon Dee's career. It seemed that in the late 1980s, maybe Simon Dee's star was in the ascendant once more, when he presented 'Sounds Of The 60s' on BBC Radio 2, but it was to be shortlived.
Simon Dee was born in Ottawa, Canada, on July 28th, 1935. He died of bone cancer on August 29th, 2009. Married three times, Simon Dee had four children.
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