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Mike Dickin
Mike Dickin

Mike Dickin (1935 – December 18, 2006), was a late-night host on the British radio station talkSPORT. Dickin used to present the 1am to 6am slot at weekends on Talk Radio. He returned filling in for James Whale during his battle with kidney cancer. He was given the mid-morning slot soon afterwards. At one point he was affectionately known as the King by his fans due to his resemblance to King Henry VIII.

Starting out as a musician in the 1960s, Dickin was a bass player and singer who found he preferred playing records to making them when he joined the BBC in 1970 as the first presenter on air at Radio Oxford. In 1977, Dickin moved to Australia where he worked for Sydney's biggest radio station, 2UE. Upon returning to the UK in the late seventies he spent 17 years working for BBC Radio 4, LBC and Capital Radio. He started at talkSPORT (then Talk Radio UK) in 1996. Dickin was also an award-winning presenter having won a Gold Rose Award in New York for his coverage of the Lockerbie Bombing disaster.

In recent years, he was the presenter on Talk Radio in the late 1990s on the 1:00am-6:00am slot and was also on-air when the death of Princess Diana broke. Dickin returned to the airwaves with talkSPORT in 2000 filling-in for James Whale during his battle with kidney cancer. Shortly after, he was appointed as the new presenter of the mid-morning phone-in following Derek Hatton’s departure from the station. In 2004, he swapped with Ian Collins on the schedule and moved to weekend evenings between 10:00am-1:00am. These latter shows were almost all broadcast from a small purpose-built studio near his home in Bodmin, Cornwall.

In addition to broadcasting, Dickin boasted a passion for motoring, motor sport and music. As a professional stunt driver, he drove one of the famous minis in the movie The Italian Job. He wrote for a variety of magazines about cars and animals, and got much of his knowledge from his farm near Bodmin in Cornwall. Also a keen sportsman, though he disliked soccer and claimed that politics was his favourite sport, Dickin he was a Hellenic League footballer playing for Abingdon United and also had a trial with Headington in the season before they became Oxford United.

He also played cricket for Abingdon as well, and rugby for Oxford. Tennis, Cricket, Golf, Fly Fishing and Shooting were his more recent sporting passions as a participant, but Horse Racing and Motor Sport took up most of his time as a spectator. For pure relaxation, sailing and narrow boating were also Dickin’s favourites, accompanied by music by Joe Cocker, Status Quo, ELO, ZZ Top, Dire Straits and Elkie Brooks. He also spent plenty of his leisure time in France where he had property and was also considering retiring across the English Channel when he hung up his headphones.

Dickin was famous for his strongly held views. His passion led to him being labelled “The Angriest Man in Britain” by talkSPORT listeners. Typical discussions on his show included crime, cars, trains, taxis, the problems of young people, the downfall of Britain, the incompetence of people in the service industry, parking tickets and call centres. In recent months Mike came to prominence as a champion of the campaign against unlawful parking tickets, featuring in a Tonight with Trevor MacDonald special on the subject in early 2006. He was a self-professed atheist and devoted his last programme to a debate on religion and the existence of God. During this broadcast he remarked, "Everybody clings to life as dearly they can, even though many think they're going to a better place later on, which, of course, they're not."

He was also known for his catchphrases, such as “My health is not in question,” when asked how he was. Another catchphrase is “If you were constipated, you’d be speechless.”

Mike Dickin was killed in a six car pile-up on the A30 near his home in Cornwall, on December 18th 2006. He was airlifted to hospital but was pronounced dead.

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