31-08-2009, 11:00 PM
Paul Rigby Wrote:RIP Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd
To the best of my ignorance, the subject of the assassination of JFK was permitted to sully the rigidly spook-controlled television airwaves of Britain on very few occasions.
One of the few that I’m aware of occurred in early 1970, when an allegedly stoned – or pissed – George Lazenby was interviewed by Simon Dee for the latter’s new London Weekend Television chat show. Lazenby, an ex-Australian Special Forces sergeant turned highly paid model, was presumably doing the rounds promoting his first and only film appearance as James Bond (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service); and took the opportunity to offer his list of preferred suspects in the case. I dimly remember being told that Lazenby made reference to the Garrison case against Clay Shaw. Despite being pre-recorded, the interview was broadcast, and Dee’s career effectively destroyed. He later made the eminently sensible remark that Britain’s television was under the Langley thumb. How right he was.
It must have been quite an episode, and, given the guest list, enjoyed more than a little spook interest. Below, an extract from a site devoted to John Lennon & his TV appearances:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob18.html
Quote:The Simon Dee Show
Recorded: 07/Feb/1970
Transmitted by: London Weekend Television Colour 08/Feb/1970 (11:25pm-12:15am)
A guest appearance on the 4th edition of Dee's new Sunday night talk-show series for London Weekend Television (Dee had previously worked for the BBC). John and Yoko also brought along Michael 'X' for the ride, but sadly this TV appearance almost certainly no longer exists in visual form (the image [align=left] is just a photograph snapped during the interview).
The James Bond actor George Lazenby was Dee's opening guest and it was alleged that he had been high on LSD during his interview which he turned into a discussion about the questions surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy a little over 6 years earlier.
Dee's employer's were said to have been furious at what had been broadcast (it was not live) and the incident is chiefly blamed for Dee's swift demise after the series ended in the summer. Having already burned his bridges with the BBC, Dee had nowhere else to go and one of Britain's most popular TV personalities of the late 1960's was never to be seen on TV again.
Did Lazenby pop his own tab, or was his drink spiked?