David Hamilton is one of Britain’s best known Radio
and TV presenters. In a career spanning more than forty years he has hosted over twelve thousand radio shows and a thousand
TV shows.
He started out as a writer. For two years from the age of 15 he wrote a weekly column in the national football
magazine ‘Soccer Star’.
On leaving school the young David got his first job as an office boy for A.T.V.
in London, delivering and collecting mail for the good and the great in television. While there he had an article published
in TV Times’, which brought him to the attention of the head of the script department, who offered David a job as a
continuity script-writer writing ‘promotion’ scripts for A.T.V.’s announcers.
At the age of 18 David
wrote the ‘Portrait of a Star’ series, which went out on Sunday nights on the ITV network. All was going well
with his writing career when David was called up for two years’ National Service in the R.A.F.
A lucky posting
found him in 1959 in Cologne, Germany, home of the British Forces Network (now B.F.B.S.). Intending to keep in touch with
his media career, David offered his services to the station director at B.F.N. His first broadcasting job was reading the
football results on a Saturday afternoon but within very little time he had his own Rock ‘n’ Roll show, ‘Hey
There’ on a Sunday afternoon. The show became compulsive listening in billets around Germany and to thousands of German
listeners as well.
In 1960 David returned to his job as a script-writer at A.T.V., but the broadcasting bug had bitten
and later that year when an ABC TV announcer returned to South Africa for three months to look after his ailing mother, David
passed an audition to stand in for him. He made the first of his many TV appearances at the ABC TV studios in Didsbury, Manchester
in October, 1960.
The following year David passed another audition and moved to Tyne-Tees TV in Newcastle as announcer,
newsreader and programme presenter. Twelve months at Tyne Tees gave him invaluable experience in various aspects of TV presenting.
He decided to do away with the stuffy style of announcing viewers had been used to. When introducing the hospital series ‘Emergency
Ward 10’ he’d appear with a doctor’s white coat and stethoscope. Linking into a western he’d appear
with a gun and a Stetson. Tyne-Tees viewers took him to their hearts and in 1962 he was voted ‘Tyne-Tees Television
Personality of the Year’.
By this time ABC TV were able to offer David a full-time job and he returned to the
Manchester studios in April, 1962. During the sixties he also appeared as an announcer on Anglia TV, Westward TV, Southern
TV and Border TV. He regularly returned to Newcastle to host shows for Tyne Tees:- ‘Cue for Sport’ (sports series,
1962), ‘Rehearsal Room’ (pop series, 1964), ‘It’s the Geordie Beat’ (pop show, 1964). ‘The
Bright Sparks’ (children’s quiz series, 1966-67), ‘Singalong’ (series, 1967). ‘Pop the Question’
(quiz series, 1968).
In December, 1962 David hosted his first show for BBC Radio. ‘The Beat Show’ featured
all the leading pop groups of the day. The show was recorded at the Playhouse theatre in Manchester on Monday nights and transmitted
on the BBC Light Programme on Thursday lunchtimes. It ran until 1965.
In March, 1963, David did one of the first TV
interviews with The Beatles on ‘ABC at Large’ and in August of that year was asked to host The Beatles August
Bank Holiday Show in Urmston, Manchester.
In May, 1964 he compered The Rolling Stones at the Palace Theatre, Manchester.
In
1965 David hosted his first shows for BBC Radio from London – ‘Swing Into Summer’, ‘Swinging Gently’
and ‘Playtime’ followed in 1966 by ‘Mid Day Spin’, ‘Newly Pressed’ and ‘Swingalong’.
His
first big national TV series came in 1967 when he was chosen to appear with Ken Dodd in ‘Doddy’s Music Box’.
The show ran for two series, recorded at the Didsbury studios, in 1967 and 1968, and was regularly in the TV Top Ten. It was
on this series that Ken Dodd nicknamed him ‘Diddy David’. David was to work again with Ken on ‘Doddy’s
Christmas Bazaar’ (LWT, 1969), ‘Funny You should Say That’ (ATV series, 1972), and ‘Ken Dodd Show’
(Southern TV, 1973).
Weeks after the ‘Doddy’s Music Box’ comedy series David was called upon to report
for ITN on the Stockport air disaster. A British Midland Airways Argonaut airliner – heading from Majorca to Manchester
– had crashed in the middle of Stockport. 72 passengers and crew died among the carnage and David was rushed to the
scene to report the harrowing events to the nation. (As recounted in Steve Morrin’s book, ‘The Day the Sky Fell
Down’).
Later that year David was signed by Anglia TV to host their game show series, ‘Try for Ten’.
There were two 26 week series spanning 1967-9 and the show, which travelled the East of England area, was constantly in the
Anglia Top Ten.
David’s stint as an announcer for ABC TV came to an end when ABC merged with Rediffusion to form
Thames TV. On July 28, 1968, he scripted and presented the final programme ‘Goodbye from ABC’. Two days later
his was the first face to be seen on the new Thames TV from London.
In no time he was hosting shows for Thames like
‘Fashion from Woburn’, Magic Circle Christmas Box’ (1968). ‘Easter Monday Sport’, ‘Million
Dollar Legs’, ‘Bank Holiday Sport’ and ‘The Magic Circle Show’ (1969).
Also in 1969 he
hosted ‘Glamour ‘69’ for Anglia TV. ‘Winter Break’ (Advertising Magazine, ATV) and appeared
in ‘Mike and Bernie’s Show’, ‘Dickie Henderson Show’ and ‘Benny Hill Show’ (all
for Thames TV).
On BBC Radio David presented the last ever edition of ‘Housewives Choice’ in September,
1967. His first broadcast on the new radio 1 was on November 20, 1967, as host of ‘Family Choice’ (simultaneously
broadcast on Radio 2). By the late Sixties David was presenting shows for BBC Radio like ‘Music through Midnight’,
‘Roundabout’, ‘Pop Inn’, ‘Radio 1 Club’ and ‘David Hamilton Show’ (Radio 1
and 2).
At the start of the Seventies David joined the team of presenters of Radio 2’s ‘Late Night Extra’.
In 1970 he hosted the ‘Dig and Run’ quiz series for Westward TV, and for the same station, ‘Miss Westward
71’.
In 1971 David was signed for his first pantomime when he played Buttons in Cinderella to rave reviews at
the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford. While in Yorkshire he presented the series ‘Just Look’ for Yorkshire TV.
Throughout
the Seventies David was seen as an announcer on Thames TV in London and presented many TV shows for the station. These included
‘Magpie Fashions’, (1971). ‘Miss TV Times’, (1971 and 1972). *The 1972 show was number 1 in the National
TV Top Twenty. ‘Miss TV Times, London’ (1972-3-4), ‘Miss London’ (1972-3), ‘Miss Thames ‘74’,
‘Chipperfield’s Circus’ (1972,76,77.78), ‘European Figure Skating Championships’ (1973), ‘The
World Disco Dance Championships’ (1978-9). He also appeared on shows with Benny Hill (1970, 73) and Tommy Cooper (Thames
series, 1975).
In the Seventies David appeared in the films ‘Some Kind of Hero’, ‘Tiffany Jones’,
and ‘Confessions of a Pop Performer’. In 1972 in his second pantomime he topped the bill in a touring show with
Little and Large. (‘Red Riding Hood’, Doncaster, Hanley, Gloucester.)
He also compered the UK tours of
David Cassidy and the Bay City Rollers.
Other 70’s TV shows included appearances on ‘Monty Python Show’
(BBC), ‘Celebrity Squares’ (ATV), ‘Whose Baby’ (Thames), ‘Harry Secombe Christmas Special’
(Yorkshire TV), ‘Generation Game’ (BBC) and ‘Blankety Blank’ (BBC).
In June, 1973 David was
given his own daily ‘David Hamilton Show’ on Radio 1. By the mid-Seventies, due to economy cuts at the BBC, this
show was simultaneously broadcast on Radio 2, giving it an audience of 15 million listeners across the two networks. It made
it the most listened to show on BBC Radio. The show ran from June, 1973 until November 1977 at which time the networks divided
again and the show transferred to Radio 2, running there until December 1986.
In 1976 David joined the team of presenters
on ‘Top of the Pops’, hosting the show in 76, 77 and 78. For BBC TV he also hosted ‘Seaside Special’
(1976-77).
David topped the bill in his third pantomime, in ‘Aladdin’ at the Victoria Apollo in 1975, and
the following year worked on television in America for the first time when he was asked to host a week of British programmes
showcased by Thames TV on WOR TV in New York. He also appeared as newscaster on ‘News at Ten’, bringing an English
slant on international news for New Yorkers. The week was highly acclaimed by press on both sides of the Atlantic, and Thames
were able to sell many of their programmes to the American market.
The experiment was repeated in 1979 when Thames
took over a week’s programming on KHJ TV in Los Angeles. Again David appeared as in-vision announcer, co-presented the
News at Ten with former ITN newscaster Andrew Gardner and co-hosted ‘Mid Morning LA’ with the American host.
On
his return to England David was invited to host the TV Times Top Ten Awards – then the biggest awards show of the year
produced by Thames in 1980 and 1981. The 1980 show was number 2 in the national TV ratings with an audience of over 15 million
viewers. The following year it again made the Top 10 with over 14 million watching.
Towards the end of 1980 David left
his job as an announcer at Thames TV, having completed 20 years of announcing since his first appearance for ABC in 1960.
He immediately went into hosting ‘Up For the Cup’, a talent show based around a football theme produced for the
ITV network by ATV and aired on Saturday evenings.
There followed many guest appearances on panel shows like ‘Punchlines’,
‘Blankety Blank’, ‘Family Fortunes’, ‘Generation Game’, ‘Give Us a Clue’,
‘Babble’, ‘Game For a Laugh’, and ‘The Cilla Black Show’.
In 1985 he appeared as
Team Captain in the pop quiz series ‘Pop the Question’, that TVS made for Channel 4, and later that year was chosen
as programme host of Lifestyle one of the earliest satellite TV stations, a role he was to occupy throughout the entire existence
of the station until it was sold eight years later in 1993. During this time he presented many programmes for Lifestyle, including
‘David Hamilton’s People’, a current affairs discussion programme in 1992.
1986 saw David present
the ‘Eurovision Song Contest’ previews show for BBC TV, he hosted ‘Some of These Days’, a panel game
he devised for the light entertainment department of BBC Radio, but in November of that year he quit Radio 2 after a disagreement
over music policy.
1987 saw him join Radio 210 in Reading, who produced a show networked to a dozen independent local
radio stations around the UK. During David’s two year stint with Radio 210, the station’s listening figures soared
to an all-time high and by the time David moved to London’s Capital Gold in 1989, the number of stations taking the
networked show had risen to over twenty.
David stayed for six years at Capital Gold before being headhunted by the
Hanson Group to present the Breakfast Show for London’s Melody Radio.
In 1987 David was chosen as host of the
game show ‘All Clued Up’. The show, produced by TVS ran for four years on the ITV network, initially on Sunday
evenings and then Monday to Friday.
During the nineties David made guest appearances on shows like ‘You Bet’
(LWT), ‘Through the Keyhole’ (Yorkshire TV and BBC), ‘Happy Families’ (BBC), ‘Jobs for the Girls’
(BBC), ‘Pebble Mill’ (BBC), ’15 to 1’ (Channel 4), ‘Esther’ (BBC), ‘Shooting Stars’
(BBC), ‘Talking Telephone Numbers’ (BBC), ‘Clive James on TV’ (LWT) and ‘Vanessa’ (BBC)
as well as many appearances on satellite TV.
When the Hanson Group sold Melody FM in 1998, David moved to London’s
Liberty radio and also joined the Classic Gold network in 1999.
His was the first voice to be heard when Saga launched
its digital station, Prime Time Radio, in May, 2000, and again at the launch of Saga 105.7 FM, the West Midlands regional
station, in October 2001. In February, 2003, he transferred to Saga’s East Midlands Station, 106.6 FM, where he presented
a daily afternoon show. His programme ‘The Million Sellers’ – which he researches and presents - is now
heard on radio stations around the U.K.
In May, 2003, David presented the first show for Splash 107.7 FM, the south
coast radio station, of which he is a Director, and on which he can now be heard with ‘The Million Sellers’.
In 2005 David presented Anglia TV’s edition of ITV’s
50th Anniversary celebrations.
In early June
2006 David was the last voice to be heard on PrimeTime Radio, when it was closed by owner Roger De Haan. on 26th
June 2006 David started as the afternoon presenter at Frinton based Big L International. David can still be heard on
the Big L with he Million Sellers show and as a guest presenter from time to time.
Since the 1970’s he has made over 1000 disco and club
appearances in the UK and has performed the opening ceremony at hundreds of shops, supermarkets and bingo halls.
David
has compered stage shows at most leading venues around the country, including the London Palladium and Royal Albert Hall.
For
over twenty years he played football for the Showbiz XI football team – many as captain – helping to raise millions
of pounds for deserving charities. He is now the team’s Honorary President.
Since 1997 he has been Matchday M.C.
for Fulham Football Club, the team he has supported since he was a boy. He also retains his childhood passion for speedway
and was announcer at Wembley stadium for meetings during the Seventies, including two world finals. He once rode in a speedway
race at Wembley Stadium.
His autobiography, ‘The Music Game’, was published by W.H. Allen in 1986, and
he has written many articles for newspapers and magazines.
