FRIENDS and family have been paying fond tribute to Simon Dee, the pioneering 1960s DJ and chat show host, who has died of cancer.

Mr Dee, 74, real name, Nicholas Henty-Dodd, passed away at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester last Saturday, only weeks after being diagnosed with bone cancer.

In the 1960s he was among the biggest stars on TV, pioneering the chat show, compering Miss World, and appearing on Juke Box Jury and Top of the Pops.

Synonymous with the spirit of the Swinging Sixties, he was reportedly the inspiration for the spoof 60s movie spy Austin Powers.

From 1967 his show, Dee Time, attracted audiences of 18 million.

Among the guests were John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Sammy Davis Jr, Bob Hope and Charlton Heston.

At the height of his fame he reportedly won a £100,000 two-year contract, but fell out with management, never to work on national TV again.

At one stage he signed on at Fulham labour exchange, later could not pay his rates, and was briefly jailed for non-payment.

Mr Dee, a three-times married father-of-four, moved to Winchester in 1994, and since 2003 had been living quietly in Bartholomew Close, Hyde.

His former wife Jude Wilson, of Hyde Church Path, Hyde, said she had been angered by the tone of some of the national newspaper coverage.

“I was enraged. The Daily Mail said he was sad, embittered recluse,” she said.

“That was an insult to his friends.

It would have been hard to have fathered a son if he had been a recluse.

“When we moved to Winchester, we renovated a cottage in Avington, and he played a full part in life in Winchester; his son was at St Bede School, and he always attended the Christmas bazaar at The Westgate School.

“Although we divorced in 2003 we remained living just yards apart, and brought up our son, George, very much together,” she added.

In June Mr Dee visited The Chiltern Tutorial School in Otterbourne, a school for dyslexic children, to talk about the 1960s and his time on pirate radio.

Jane Gaudie, headteacher, said: “He was fantastic, a natural story teller.

“I think the children expected him to be dressed as a pirate. He had them enthralled.They asked for his autograph at the end. He adored that.”

Mr Dee was a regular customer at Winchester News, the deli/shop/café run by Tom Romita in St George’s Street.

A friend, John Harding, of St John’s Street, said: “He enjoyed enormous fame, but his celebrity was over by the age of 34 or 35.

“The last 30 years he spent in relative obscurity. He had very little money but never moaned, had no self-pity, and would laugh at the past.

“He was enormous fun and mildly outrageous. He greatly admired the female of the species!

“He had many friends associated with Tom’s. It was like Last of the Summer Wine, people gathering together. We had many conversations and a huge amount of laughter.”

Mr Romita said: “He came in every day for a cigar, a coffee and a paper. He was very charming.”

Another customer Sue Nelmes, a city councillor, of Bar End Road, said: “He was good company. I never heard him moan.We will miss him.”

Mrs Nelmes said the shop would be staging a tribute party when Mr Dee’s favourite music would be played.

Another friend, Roger Backhouse QC, of Parchment Street, said: “He had a terminal illness but made light of it and he always thought about his family. He never showed any bitterness. He died with grace.”

Mr Backhouse added: “He said his only regret about what happened to him was never continuing a relationship with Joanna Lumley.”

Cllr Dominic Hiscock, the mayor and Mr Dee’s local ward councillor, said: “He was one of Hyde’s more interesting and colourful characters.”

In June Mr Dee gave the Hampshire Chronicle his first press interview for 20 years, and indeed his last.

In it he said: “I’ve no regrets. If you change your past, you change your present.

“Bitterness destroys, but laughter lifts you. As a girlfriend said the other day, ‘you’ve still got your hair!’”