06-09-2009, 05:29 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.
Quote:Simon DeeHuge radio and television star of the Swinging Sixties whose career went into freefall in the 1970s
Anthony Hayward
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 30 August 2009 19.08 BST
After his show was axed, Dee was spotted signing on the dole at Fulham labour exchange. However, he remained in the news, claiming that he had been ousted as a result of his opposition to Britain entering the EEC and that his phone was tapped by the intelligence services. Dee said: "Being a high-flier in the media, I knew I'd have my phone tapped by British intelligence. It was perfectly obvious that the CIA, who controlled our media and still do, would be on my case."
• Simon Dee (Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd), disc-jockey and television presenter, born 28 July 1935; died 29 August 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/20...e-obituary
I've never found footage of the interview Dee conducted with Lazenby. Let's hope some intrepid soul digs it out.
Dee's fall should almost certainly be viewed within the same context of the abrupt shutting down of the late 60s which saw so many "mysterious" deaths among musicians.
John Simkin: "I have had this email from a friend of Simon Dee..."
Quote:I'm sure if 'Simon' was around to read some of the 'obits' he'd afford himself a wry smile and have a chuckle at the fact that large swathes of the 'Fourth Estate' have continued to repeat some of the hoary old myths and inaccuracies that have been spread about him since he was drummed out of the BBC for such things as daring to permit the left wing historian AJP Taylor to attack the EU on his show and giving a platform for then Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe to make the case for PR in British elections - issues that were both an anathema to the British establishment and the then British govt of Harold Wilson. Simon even tried to get the world premier of the Zapruder film broadcast on his show as a result of his own growing belief that Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy. While in 1968 Simon spoke at a public rally against world poverty. Facts which would seem to fly in the face of his usual presentation in sections of the media as some bumbling superficial lightweight. And while it would generally be agreed that Simon didn't always help himself when it came to the work opportunities offered him in the media after he was sacked by LWT following the 'Lazenby affair', often repeated claims of his 'paranoia' seem to ignore the fact that a 2004 application to the Freedom of Information act revealed that Special Branch held a big thick file on Simon and had sent two officers to visit him at one point. The visit apparently being triggered by Simon's public attacks on the Wilson govts strong arm tactics towards independent radio stations."
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index....ntry171913