Simon Dee

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Carl Nicholas Henty-Dodd (born July 28, 1935) 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.

Dee was born in Ottawa, Canada but came to Britain at the age of 11. He was educated at Brighton College. At first working as an actor, in 1964 he was the first voice to be heard on Radio Caroline, one of the 'radio pirates' broadcasting popular music from ships outside UK territorial waters, and became so famous that he was offered a job on the BBC Light Programme in 1965. In 1967 he began his chat show on BBC television, which began with the announcer emulating Ed McMahon's introduction to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ('It's Siiiiimon Dee!') and closed with Dee driving off in a Jaguar E-type with an anoymous blonde. Dee also had cameo roles in some films, including The Italian Job. He was first imprisoned for debt in March 1968, in Brixton prison where he suffered the fate that 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 internement he was so shocked that, while in the reception area waiting to be affected to a cell, he swore that he would never get into debt again!

Due to disagreement with BBC bosses about the show, Dee decided to take up an offer to move to London Weekend 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.

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.

Dee has found some brief broadcasting jobs since that time, such as in the late 1980s when he hosted a show on BBC Radio 2, playing classic oldies. 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 not usually thought worthy of recording.

The late legendary 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 and a priest who strolls in with his trousers unzipped.

External links

[Associated-Rediffusion TV] (includes a clip of Deeconstruction)
[Page on Old Brightonians]

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