Dee was born on 28 July 1935, in Manchester, the only child of Cyril Edward Dodd (1906–1980)[3] and Doris Gwendoline Pilling (née Simon) (1907–1952) who married in 1934 in Salford (a Radio Caroline biography gave his birthplace as Ottawa, Ontario, Canada).

[5][6] He served his compulsory national service in a Royal Air Force photo-reconnaissance unit, taking aerial photographs of the combat zone during the 1956 Suez Crisis, and being wounded in the face by a sniper in Cyprus.

Demobilised in 1958, his first civilian jobs included a bouncer in a coffee bar, actor, photographic assistant to Balfour de Havilland (dismissed when he loaded the wrong film into the camera for a fashion shoot and none of the photos came out), builders' labourer, leaf-sweeper in Hyde Park, and vacuum cleaner salesman.

[7] He left in 1965 to go freelance, but had fallen out with directors of the station beforehand, having refused to play certain records and another occasion when he disobeyed the ship captain's orders.

[8] He joined the team presenting Top of the Pops in 1966, replacing David Jacobs, and the following year introduced the Monday edition of Midday Spin on the Light Programme and then Radio 1 from September 1967.

He fell into early disfavour on Radio 1 after twice playing Scott Walker's recording of Jacques Brel's song "Jackie", which had been banned by the BBC.

", imitating The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and closed with a film sequence of Dee driving off in an E-type Jaguar with blonde model Lorna McDonough.

In the 2004 Channel 4 TV programme Dee Construction, fellow DJ Tony Blackburn recalled, "He used to drive up and down the King's Road in an Aston Martin driven by his secretary.

It is said that the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment Bill Cotton not only refused the pay rise that Dee demanded, but said that he would cut his wages by 20% "to test his loyalty".

[15] He was offered £100,000 for a two-year contract with the ITV contractor London Weekend Television and commenced a new series, The Simon Dee Show, on Sunday evenings, beginning in January 1970.

After a bizarre interview with actor George Lazenby, who discussed at length his theories about the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, Dee's show was dropped by LWT.

Dee later claimed that there was an "Establishment plot" against him because of his open opposition to Wilson: government files were later released showing that he was being monitored by the Security Service.

[4] Consumed by debt, Dee made several court appearances and in 1974 served 28 days in Pentonville Prison for non-payment of rates on his former Chelsea home.