David Hamilton is one of Britain`s best known radio and TV personalities with a career spanning over five decades. During that time he has presented over 12,000 radio shows for BBC and commercial stations and over 1,000 TV shows mainly for BBC and ITV, but also on satellite.
He started out as a writer. While still a pupil at Glastonbury Road Grammar School at St. Helier in Surrey he wrote a weekly column in the national football magazine, Soccer Star, for two years from the age of 15.
Leaving school at 17, he joined ATV as a continuity script-writer and in 1957 scripted the ATV Sunday night film series, Portrait Of A Star.
Called up for National Service in the R.A.F., he was posted to Cologne, home of the British Forces Network in Germany. There, at the age of 19, he became a teenage rock `n` roll disc-jockey with a weekly show on forces radio.
Scroll down for highlights of David's career through the decades.
The Twenties
In 2021 David launched a daily show on national station Boom Radio. He also joined the team of presenters of Now 70`s TV.
The Tens
David started the Tens with appearances on Cash in the Celebrity Attic, Celebrity Eggheads and The Bob Monkhouse Collection (all BBC) and in the review of Fulham`s route to Hamburg for the Europa League Final on Channel 5. EUFA also booked him as the English matchday presenter in Hamburg. In 2010 David joined the team of presenters on Sky music station, Vintage TV. In 2012 he danced on Let`s Dance for Sport Relief on BBC 1 and appeared on Loose Women (ITV), The One Show (BBC), and in celebrity editions of Pointless and Antiques Road Trip (BBC). The same year he began a daily radio show for online and digital station, The Wireless.
In 2014 he appeared as a guest on ITV`s Saturday night series, Amazing Greys...
By the middle of the decade he was hosting shows for BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey and presented the David Hamilton Show, a 10 week chat show series for Big Centre TV, Birmingham.
In 2016 David embarked on a 40-theatre tour, David Hamilton`s Rock `n` Roll Back The Years, with band, The Fugitives, and singers.
The Noughties
Early in the new millennium David helped to launch several new radio stations. In 2000 his was the first voice to be heard on PrimeTime Radio, one of the earliest digital stations. David was the main presenter on the station throughout its existence, from 2000 to 2006.
His voice launched Saga`s first FM station, based in Birmingham, in October, 2001. He presented the station`s breakfast show until 2003 when he moved to Nottingham to host its sister station`s afternoon show.
In May, 2003, David presented the first show on Worthing`s new station, Splash FM. David`s show, The Million Sellers, was heard on Splash for six years, during which time David was a director of the station. Subsequently he presented "The Million Sellers" on over a dozen different stations, both in this country and abroad. In 2005 David presented Anglia TV`s edition of ITV`s 50th anniversary celebrations.
His TV appearances in 2009 included the Richard and Judy Show and a celebrity D-J edition of The Weakest Link. Match of the Day 2 did a special feature on David and his work at Fulham Football Club.Early in 2009 he appeared on the British Forces Broadcasting Service in a special programme commemorating his 50th anniversary in radio.
As David moves into his sixth decade as a performer, he continues to be in demand for radio shows on various stations around the U.K. To date he has presented over 12,000 radio shows and 1,000 TV shows.
The Nineties
David began the Nineties hosting All Clued Up for ITV, presenting many programmes on the Lifestyle TV channel including the series, David Hamilton`s People, and a daily show on Capital Gold.
In 1995 he was headhunted by London`s Melody Radio where he presented the breakfast show for four years until the station was sold in 1998. He then joined Liberty Radio and the Classic Gold network. David`s Nineties` TV appearances included Happy Families, Talking Telephone Numbers, You Bet, What`s in the Box?, 15 to 1, Shooting Stars and Pebble Mill, as well as many shows on satellite TV.
As a lifelong supporter of Fulham Football Club, David was delighted to become the club`s matchday MC in 1996, a post he held for 18 seasons. During that time he has MC`d three sets of promotion celebrations and several seasons in the Premier League and has seen the club rise from the lower divisions to arguably the best league in the world.
By the end of the Nineties David had made a thousand appearances in discos, clubs and corporate events and had performed the opening ceremony at over a thousand shops and supermarkets. He had compered shows at all Britain`s major venues including The Royal Albert Hall and The London Palladium.
The Eighties
At the beginning of the Eighties David hosted Up For The Cup, a talent show with a football theme which aired on Saturday nights on ITV. Throughout the decade he made guest appearances on TV shows like Blankety Blank, Celebrity Squares, Punchlines, The Generation Game and Give Us A Clue. In l980 and 1981 he hosted the TV Times Awards, at the time the biggest awards show of the year. In 1985 he and Chris Tarrant were team captains on the Channel 4 music series, Pop The Question. The same year he was chosen as the host of Lifestyle, one of the earliest satellite TV stations, a role he occupied throughout the eight years the station was on air.
In 1987 he hosted the game show, All Clued Up. The series ran on the ITV network for four years.
His afternoon show on Radio Two ran until the end of 1986 when he quit the station after complaining the music policy was `geriatric`.
In 1987 he moved to commercial radio with a daily show on Radio 210 based in Reading and a weekend show networked to a dozen commercial stations around the country.
By the time he joined Capital Gold in 1988 the number of stations taking the show had risen to twenty.
His autobiography, The Music Game, was published in 1986.
The Seventies
In the Seventies David had prominent roles in several Benny Hill Shows for Thames TV and in 1975 appeared in The Tommy Cooper Show series. Each show ended with an interview spot with Tommy and David called Fez To Fez.
He hosted beauty contests including Miss Thames, Miss London and Miss TV Times. One of the Miss TV Times shows was number one in the national TV ratings. On ITV David played the ringmaster in Chipperfield`s Circus for several years and hosted the World Disco Dance Championships in 1978 and 1979.
In 1976 he worked on television in America when Thames invited him to be their programme host and newsreader when they showcased a week of British programmes on WOR TV in New York. Later, in 1979, he hosted a similar week on KHJ in Los Angeles.
In June, 1973, David was given a 3-hour daily show on BBC Radio One. In 1975 the show was simultaneously broadcast on Radio Two, giving it the biggest ever audience on BBC radio of 18 million.
While at Radio One David was voted one of Britain`s top 3 DJ`s two years running. In 1977 his daily show transferred to Radio Two where it ran for the next nine years. On BBC TV David hosted the Saturday night Light Entertainment series, Seaside Special, and many editions of Top Of The Pops, as well as a cameo role in Monty Python`s Flying Circus. During the Seventies he compered tours with David Cassidy and the Bay City Rollers.
In pantomime he played Buttons in Cinderella at Bradford Alhambra, toured with Little and Large (Doncaster, Hanley, Gloucester) and formed a double act with `Carry On` star Kenneth Connor in Aladdin at the Victoria Apollo.
David appeared as himself in several films including Tiffany Jones, Home Before Midnight and Confessions of a Pop Performer.
The Sixties
David made his television debut in October 1960 as an in-vision announcer on ABC TV based in Manchester. He joined Tyne-Tees TV in Newcastle as announcer/newsreader in 1961 and in 1962 was voted the station`s Personality of the Year.
The award was presented to him on Tyne-Tees TV by Dame Vera Lynn. Later in 1962 David returned to ABC TV.
Throughout the Sixties he hosted quiz and sports shows and beauty contests for stations including Anglia TV, Tyne-Tees TV and Westward TV and in 1967 was chosen as straight man to Ken Dodd on the ABC TV show, Doddy`s Music Box.
There were two series, in 1967 and 1968, and they were shown on the ITV network on Saturday nights. Working with Ken Dodd earned him a new nickname, `Diddy David`. Also on ABC David conducted one of the first TV interviews with The Beatles in 1963. Later that year he introduced The Beatles live at the Urmston Show in Manchester and in 1964 compered The Rolling Stones at the Palace Theatre, Manchester.
David made his U.K. radio debut as the host of The Beat Show in 1962 and fronted the show until 1965. The show featured the top beat music groups of the day and went out on the BBC Light Programme on Thursday lunchtimes. Subsequently, David presented many music shows for the Light Programme. His first show for Radio One was Family Choice in 1967.
In contrast in 1967 he fronted ITN`s coverage of the Stockport Air Disaster when a British Midland aeroplane crashed in the centre of the town with the loss of many lives.
In 1968 he wrote and presented the final show for ABC TV, Goodbye From ABC, before that company merged with Rediffusion to form Thames TV. Two days later his face was the first to be seen on the new Thames TV in London. Days later he hosted Thames` first outside broadcast, Fashion From Woburn.