He was educated at Palmerston North Boys' High School and joined the local newspaper as a cadet journalist.
[1] After a period in Sydney, Dean moved to the United Kingdom and was a presenter for eight years on the BBC2 discussion programme Late Night Line-Up.
During the early 1970s he made television documentaries on such figures as George Formby, Noël Coward and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
[1] Following the cancellation of Late Night Line-Up in 1972, Dean returned to New Zealand where he hosted the eponymous television chat show Dean on Sunday, before once again moving to Australia where he worked for the Nine Network and anchored that broadcaster's 1976 Summer Olympics coverage.
Subsequently, he returned to the BBC in Britain and was a reporter on programmes such as Man Alive and 40 Minutes.