Dickinson was placed for adoption as an infant and never again met his biological mother although he corresponded with her in later life when she was living in Jersey.

Dickinson began an apprenticeship at an aircraft factory when he was 14, but quickly left to work in the cloth trade in central Manchester.

[2] Dickinson set up in Manchester with the assistance of an old customer as silent partner, and the business ran until 1991 when, in light of forthcoming recession, the shop was closed.

As a wedding gift Lorne gave David an antique regency mourning ring, set with a rose cut diamond.

For forty years he has used the same tailor, Chris Nicolaou, who appeared as a guest for Dickinson's This Is Your Life programme, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at an auction house in Folkestone in November 2002.

His dark complexion (often implied to be a fake tan, but he says that it is because of his Armenian ancestry) and numerous catchphrases quickly caught the viewers' attention.

His career break as a television celebrity came from presenting Bargain Hunt on BBC One at lunchtimes which gained a keen following amongst daytime viewers including students.

Dickinson's job is to act as a mediator to help the sellers obtain the best prices from the dealers or to help them with the decision about whether to refuse the offer and to take the item to auction.

In 2002, Dickinson appeared as a guest on Shooting Stars joining Team B led by Ulrika Jonsson with Johnny Vegas.

In March 2014, Dickinson appeared in the eleventh series of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.

The duo disguised themselves with prosthetics and fake accents to dupe Dickinson into believing there was a live argument and subsequent car crash on the set of his new 'fake' show Long Lost Treasures.