Where are they now ? are they Where
IFormer radio DJ David Hamilton (81) reveals the role the RAF played in his break into broadcasting, how he got the nickname ‘Diddy’ and what he’s up to now
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Hamilton had never done his National Service he might not have become a broadcaster. Hailing from a family of journalists, it was while working as a scriptwriter that he got called up in 1959.
“I joined the RAF and was posted to Cologne, the home of British Forces Network. I told the boss I was a scriptwriter and he gave me a job reading the football results,” he recalls. “The music they played on the station was Bing Crosby and Peggy Lee, rather than the Rock
’n’ Roll I knew young people wanted to listen to, so I persuaded the bosses to let me play some on the show. It was a great success – especially as it coincided with Elvis doing National Service in Germany at the same time.”
After his National Service, David returned to the UK. “I started work as a television announcer with ABC TV,” he continues. “I hosted TV and radio shows, as well as introducing acts such as The Rolling Stones and The Beatles on stage.”
He also worked with Ken Dodd for two years on the TV show Doddy’s Music Box.
“It was Ken who first called me Diddy,” chuckles David, who’s 5ft 6in, “although he did ask me if I minded first. I didn’t mind at all. The nickname has served me rather well.”
David started presenting shows on Radio 1 in 1967, landing a regular three-hour show in 1973.
“Those early years at Radio 1 were a golden age for radio and I doubt we’ll see anything like it again,” he continues. “You’d find 18 million listeners tuning in. Everyone knew your show and DJs became household names.
“It was at the BBC where I met DJ and presenter Pete Murray, who became my inspiration and a lifelong friend. It was an exciting, very busy time. I hosted TV shows such as Top of the Pops and Seaside Special. I was also a DJ at discos and did club appearances and TV announcing. Radio-wise, I later switched to Radio 2 before moving to Capital Gold in 1986. Since then, I’ve worked for a number of commercial radio stations.”
But that’s not all. In 2016/17, he went on the road with a band named The Fugitives, compering the shows and telling stories about his life and the people he’s worked with. “We did 35 shows nationwide,” he reveals. “I was hoping to be on tour this year with [Sixties’ teen idol] Dave Berry, but Covid-19 put a stop to that.”
Not that he’s been idle during lockdown – David has written a book, Radio Daze. It’s a sequel to The Golden Age of Radio 1 – Hotshots, Big Shots and Potshots about his time at the radio station, which was published in 2017. He’s also been revisiting the early days of his broadcasting career at ABC TV in Manchester.
“I’m doing the continuity links for a new TV streaming service called Network on Air,” he says. “It’s like timetravel television. Viewers can see much-loved TV shows that screened on ABC, which broadcast at weekends in the North and the Midlands between 1956 and 1968.
“There are classics such as the Mike and Bernie Winters Show, Armchair Theatre and The David Nixon Show. ABC had a blockbuster schedule and people went to work on a Monday morning talking about the programmes they’d seen over the weekend. That doesn’t happen today. It was truly a golden era of television.”
■ To find out more about David’s Network on Air visit watch.networkonair.com
‘It was Ken Dodd who first called me Diddy: I didn’t mind at all!’
s a nation we’ve always loved a bit of do-ityourself, especially at this time of the year when the August Bank Holiday usually sends us in hoardes to the nearest hardware store. From the triumph of completing a task long overdue, to the DIY disasters and inevitable household arguments of, “You’re not doing it right!” home improvements are part and parcel of British culture.
But this year DIY has boomed like never before as the recent lockdown saw many of us picking up our paintbrushes and digging out the drill to crack on with those DIY projects we’ve been putting off for years.
Since the pandemic hit, as many as 85 per cent of us have undertaken home improvements, while stores selling DIY products have reported unprecedented sales. You only need
ADIY was sold to people as the perfect activity for harmonious marital bliss...
to look at photos of the eye-watering queues at B&Q stores when they first reopened to realise lockdown Britain went DIY-mad. But pandemic or not, where does our obsession for doingit-ourselves come from? And why not just ‘get a man in’?
The British interest in DIY was ignited by the wartime spirit of ‘make do and mend’. This really made DIY a national hobby, not least as skilled manpower became hard to come by with so many handymen fighting on the front line.
Going into the Fifties and Sixties, home ownership boomed and so too did an interest in home improvements. A shorter working week meant families had more time to work on home projects, while better pay
for some gave
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In 1969, the first B&Q store opened in Southampton to meet the demands of this new generation who wanted to do it all themselves and going into the Seventies, DIY experienced something of a golden age. Emboldened by the new products and equipment at our fingertips, DIY got even more ambitious in our bid for a ‘trendy’ home of avocado bathroom suites, psychedelic wallpaper and swirly Artex ceilings.
Then came the innovation that would change everything: flatpack furniture. Love it or hate it, flatpack revolutionised the way
Barry Bucknell with his tools of the DIY trade people the funds to invest in their houses.
The rise in TV also played a part as 1956 saw the first ever TV handyman, Barry Bucknell, a smartly dressed former car engineer who, through his broadcaster wife, accidentally ended up presenting his own slot on the BBC afternoon show, About the Home.
Just a year later, Barry had his own show, Do It Yourself, where he became the bane of husbands who were now expected to put up shelves or plaster walls themselves. ITV quickly
TV DIY explosion!
we improved our homes. We no longer had to spend hours figuring out how to put things together for ourselves – we could spend days fathoming out complicated instructions instead! The supposed ease of flatpack also paved the way for a move towards simpler DIY solutions from self-adhesive wallpaper to the ‘no nails’ picture hangings we’re used to today. followed suit with its own, Handy Round the Home programme, where presenter Harry Greene gave practical demonstrations as he renovated his London flat.
TV ads of the time showed DIY as the perfect activity for harmonious marital bliss, though in our experience DIY usually has the opposite effect!
DIY magazines touted the tools every household should have!
In the Nineties and early 2000s, the craze for home improvement shows brought us Changing Rooms with Carol Smillie and ‘Handy Andy’ (left), regularly drawing in 10m viewers with a combination of DIY and soap-opera drama if one of the couples didn’t like the way their friends had decorated their room. DIY SOS, Ground Force, Grand Designs, 60-Minute Makeover, House Doctor and so many more also filled up the TV schedules.