David Dickinson
Encyclopedia
David Dickinson is an English
antiques
expert, television presenter
and entrepreneur
.
, Stockport
, Cheshire
, to Eugenie Gulessarian. Eugenie was a member of an Armenian textile trading family, whose father Hrant Gulesserian, had moved from Constantinople
to Manchester
, England in 1904. Dickinson had corresponded with his biological mother in her later life in Jersey
, but they never met. Dickinson's biological father is unknown. His maternal grandmother's surname was Jackson, his mum was born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy
. It has recently been found, through genealogy
research, that his mum married, in 1943, in Wallasey
to a man named Herbert H Moss, who may have been David's father.
David was adopted by the Dickinsons, a local couple. Mr. Dickinson died when David was 12, and as his adoptive mother worked hard to keep the family together, David was in part brought up by his French
adoptive grandmother Sarah Dickenson. Dickinson began an apprenticeship at an aircraft factory when he was 14, but quickly left to work in the cloth trade in central Manchester. At 19 Dickinson served three years of a four-year sentence in prison, the majority spent at Strangeways in Manchester, for fraud.
He began working as an antiques dealer 30 years ago, when he worked full time as agent to his wife, the singer Lorne Lesley, who had 10 UK Single Record releases from 1959–1966, but no chart hits. While she was working, Dickinson spent time visiting antique shops and learning from the trade – he believed this was as a result of his approach, in "chatting up and generally charming" the dealers. Eventually he opened his own shop with old school friend Chris Haworth in Disley
. The pair sold the first shop in 1980, and ran another in Wilmslow
for three years – but it was not a success, and they dissolved the partnership.
Dickinson set up again 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. Dickinson decided to concentrate on selling antiques at prestigious fairs, taking stands at Olympia and other major antiques fairs three or four times a year, dealing in 18th and 19th century furniture and works of art.
made about him and his preparation for a show at Olympia. His dark complexion (often implied to be a fake tan, but he claims that it's because of his Armenian ancestry) and numerous catchphrases quickly caught the viewers' attention. He will often ask female contestants "Do you mind if I call you girls?", describe particularly excellent items as "real bobby-dazzlers", poor items as "a load of tat," and bargains as being "as cheap as chips"
Dickinson came to public attention as an antiques expert on This Morning
and BBC Two
's The Antiques Show owing in part to his facial resemblance to the fictional antiques dealer from the BBC drama series Lovejoy
. His career break as a TV celebrity came from presenting the game show
Bargain Hunt
on BBC One
at lunchtimes which gained a keen following amongst daytime viewers including students.
A primetime evening version of Bargain Hunt was broadcast for a few years following the success of the daytime show. Dickinson left the daytime edition of Bargain Hunt in 2003 and was replaced by Tim Wonnacott
on the daytime slot whilst Dickinson carried on presenting the primetime, celebrity and Christmas versions of the show. He went on to present a reality show, Dealing With Dickinson on BBC1 in 2005 which was cancelled after only one series. Dickinson left the BBC once the primetime editions of Bargain Hunt were cancelled.
Dickinson moved to ITV1
in 2006 to present a new daytime antiques programme, Dickinson's Real Deal
which is broadcast on daytime weekday afternoons. Old episodes are frequently repeated. The show visits locations around the UK and asks people to come in and either sell their antiques
and collectables for valuation by an antiques dealer who may offer to buy the item for cash. Alternatively, the participants can take a gamble and go to auction
if the dealer's offer is refused or no offer is made to buy the object. The participant risks taking a lower price than offered by the dealer if the object fails to exceed the dealer's offer or fails to meet its reserve. David'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.
From 17 May 2010, "The David Dickinson Show", a celebrity variety show, was broadcast on ITV1 for 10 episodes.
joining Team B led by Ulrika Jonsson
and Johnny Vegas
.
In 2004 he was one of several celebrities to have their portraits painted in the BBC One
television series Star Portraits with Rolf Harris
http://www.starportraits.co.uk/programme.htm#dickinson, and, also in 2004, he appeared in the first series of Strictly Come Dancing
.
In 2005 Dickinson appeared on the ITV
reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, where he first announced that he had used heroin in his younger years. He also presented information slots for viewers on how to bid on satellite shopping channel Bid TV.
Dickinson explored his family background in an episode of the third series of the BBC genealogical
documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? broadcast in the UK on 4 October 2006. He was able to trace relatives in both the UK and Istanbul.
On one radio episode of Dead Ringers
, The Doctor
(voiced by Jon Culshaw
) 'phoned up Dickinson to ask him how much he could get for a Magnetic Core Extractor that was believed to be owned by the Doctor when he was Jon Pertwee
. Dickinson described it as "a bit of a bobby dazzler".
, Cardiff
. The couple live in the village of Bollington
, Cheshire and have two grown-up children, and also grandchildren.
Dickinson's nickname is "The Duke", a reference to his smart but slightly eccentric dress sense. For forty years David has used the same tailor, Chris Nicolaou, who appeared as a guest for David's This Is Your Life
programme.
Until May 2008, he drove a bright blue Bentley Continental GT
. He owns two vehicles, the first being an eco-friendly electric Smart EV and the second a Reliant Regal
van; this van was one of the famous yellow Trotters Independent Traders vans from the sitcom Only Fools and Horses
, which Dickinson bought in 2007 for over £44,000.
sitcom Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge
, digital radio
DJ Alan and his co-host Zoe hold a 'Celebrity Forced Mating' text-in contest. The idea of the contest is to speculate on the appearance and character of two given celebrities' offspring. One text suggests the mating of Dickinson and Kylie Minogue
to create an Oompa Loompa, with (as Alan puts it) Minogue contributing the small stature and Dickinson providing the skin colour and facial features.
Audio grabs from Bargain Hunt and other associated Dickinson programs were used on Australian radio program Get This
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
antiques
Antiques
An antique is an old collectible item. It is collected or desirable because of its age , beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features...
expert, television presenter
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
.
Biography
David Dickinson was born in Cheadle HeathCheadle Heath
Cheadle Heath is a suburban area of Stockport, part of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England. It is approximately west of Stockport's town centre and southeast of the city of Manchester....
, Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, to Eugenie Gulessarian. Eugenie was a member of an Armenian textile trading family, whose father Hrant Gulesserian, had moved from Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
to Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England in 1904. Dickinson had corresponded with his biological mother in her later life in Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
, but they never met. Dickinson's biological father is unknown. His maternal grandmother's surname was Jackson, his mum was born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburban area of the city of Manchester, England. It is known locally as Chorlton. It is situated about four miles southwest of Manchester city centre. Pronunciation varies: and are both common....
. It has recently been found, through genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
research, that his mum married, in 1943, in Wallasey
Wallasey
Wallasey is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England, on the mouth of the River Mersey, at the northeastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula...
to a man named Herbert H Moss, who may have been David's father.
David was adopted by the Dickinsons, a local couple. Mr. Dickinson died when David was 12, and as his adoptive mother worked hard to keep the family together, David was in part brought up by his French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
adoptive grandmother Sarah Dickenson. Dickinson began an apprenticeship at an aircraft factory when he was 14, but quickly left to work in the cloth trade in central Manchester. At 19 Dickinson served three years of a four-year sentence in prison, the majority spent at Strangeways in Manchester, for fraud.
He began working as an antiques dealer 30 years ago, when he worked full time as agent to his wife, the singer Lorne Lesley, who had 10 UK Single Record releases from 1959–1966, but no chart hits. While she was working, Dickinson spent time visiting antique shops and learning from the trade – he believed this was as a result of his approach, in "chatting up and generally charming" the dealers. Eventually he opened his own shop with old school friend Chris Haworth in Disley
Disley
Disley is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is located on the very edge of the Peak District, in the Goyt Valley, very close to the county boundary with Derbyshire at New Mills, and south of Stockport, Greater...
. The pair sold the first shop in 1980, and ran another in Wilmslow
Wilmslow
-Economy:Wilmslow is well known, like Alderley Edge, for having many famous residents, notably footballers, stars of Coronation Street and rich North West businessmen. The town is part of the so-called Golden Triangle in the north west together with Alderley Edge and Prestbury...
for three years – but it was not a success, and they dissolved the partnership.
Dickinson set up again 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. Dickinson decided to concentrate on selling antiques at prestigious fairs, taking stands at Olympia and other major antiques fairs three or four times a year, dealing in 18th and 19th century furniture and works of art.
TV career
In 1998, a chance meeting with a TV producer at a barbecue led to Dickinson's TV appearance, a two-part documentary for the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
made about him and his preparation for a show at Olympia. His dark complexion (often implied to be a fake tan, but he claims that it's because of his Armenian ancestry) and numerous catchphrases quickly caught the viewers' attention. He will often ask female contestants "Do you mind if I call you girls?", describe particularly excellent items as "real bobby-dazzlers", poor items as "a load of tat," and bargains as being "as cheap as chips"
Dickinson came to public attention as an antiques expert on This Morning
This Morning (TV series)
This Morning is a British daytime television programme broadcast on ITV. As of September 2011, its main presenters are Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, with various other presenters standing in for illness or contributing to sections of the programme.The...
and BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
's The Antiques Show owing in part to his facial resemblance to the fictional antiques dealer from the BBC drama series Lovejoy
Lovejoy
Lovejoy is a TV series about the adventures of Lovejoy, a British antiques dealer and faker based in East Anglia, a less than scrupulous yet likeable rogue. The episodes were based on a series of picaresque novels by John Grant...
. His career break as a TV celebrity came from presenting the game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
Bargain Hunt
Bargain Hunt
Bargain Hunt is a British television programme in which two pairs of contestants are challenged to buy antiques at a fair and then sell them in an auction for a profit. It has aired on BBC One since 13 March 2000 in a daytime version and from 22 August 2002 to 13 November 2004 in a primetime version...
on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
at lunchtimes which gained a keen following amongst daytime viewers including students.
A primetime evening version of Bargain Hunt was broadcast for a few years following the success of the daytime show. Dickinson left the daytime edition of Bargain Hunt in 2003 and was replaced by Tim Wonnacott
Tim Wonnacott
Tim Wonnacott is a Chartered Auctioneer, Chartered Surveyor English antiques expert, television presenter. He has been Director of one of the world's oldest auction houses, Sotheby's...
on the daytime slot whilst Dickinson carried on presenting the primetime, celebrity and Christmas versions of the show. He went on to present a reality show, Dealing With Dickinson on BBC1 in 2005 which was cancelled after only one series. Dickinson left the BBC once the primetime editions of Bargain Hunt were cancelled.
Dickinson moved to ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
in 2006 to present a new daytime antiques programme, Dickinson's Real Deal
Dickinson's Real Deal
Dickinson's Real Deal is an ITV, UK modern antiques and collectables television programme presented by David Dickinson. The new series air on the ITV Network whereas old episodes are repeated on ITV3.-The show:...
which is broadcast on daytime weekday afternoons. Old episodes are frequently repeated. The show visits locations around the UK and asks people to come in and either sell their antiques
Antiques
An antique is an old collectible item. It is collected or desirable because of its age , beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features...
and collectables for valuation by an antiques dealer who may offer to buy the item for cash. Alternatively, the participants can take a gamble and go to auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
if the dealer's offer is refused or no offer is made to buy the object. The participant risks taking a lower price than offered by the dealer if the object fails to exceed the dealer's offer or fails to meet its reserve. David'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.
From 17 May 2010, "The David Dickinson Show", a celebrity variety show, was broadcast on ITV1 for 10 episodes.
Guest appearances
In 2002 David Dickinson appeared as a guest on Shooting StarsShooting Stars
Shooting Stars is a British television comedy panel game broadcast on BBC Two as a pilot in 1993, then as 3 full series from 1995 to 1997, then on BBC Choice from January to December 2002 with 2 series before returning to BBC Two for another 3 series from 2008 until its axing in 2011...
joining Team B led by Ulrika Jonsson
Ulrika Jonsson
Eva Ulrika Jonsson is a Swedish television presenter in the UK, who became famous as a TV-am weather presenter and moved on to present Gladiators and became a team captain of the show Shooting Stars.-Early life:...
and Johnny Vegas
Johnny Vegas
Johnny Vegas is an English actor and comedian. He is known for his angry rants, portly figure, high husky voice and support of St Helens rugby league club. More recently he has moved into dramatic acting.-Early life:He was born in St Helens, Lancashire, the youngest of four children of Laurence...
.
In 2004 he was one of several celebrities to have their portraits painted in the BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
television series Star Portraits with Rolf Harris
Star Portraits with Rolf Harris
Star Portraits with Rolf Harris was a BBC television series that has so far had three series, the most recent in March 2007. In it, three artists each paint a picture of a celebrity, and then the celebrity gets to choose to keep one of the paintings...
http://www.starportraits.co.uk/programme.htm#dickinson, and, also in 2004, he appeared in the first series of Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly Come Dancing is a British television show, featuring celebrities with professional dance partners competing in Ballroom and Latin dances. The title of the show suggests a continuation of the long-running series Come Dancing, with an allusion to the film Strictly Ballroom...
.
In 2005 Dickinson appeared on the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, where he first announced that he had used heroin in his younger years. He also presented information slots for viewers on how to bid on satellite shopping channel Bid TV.
Dickinson explored his family background in an episode of the third series of the BBC genealogical
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? broadcast in the UK on 4 October 2006. He was able to trace relatives in both the UK and Istanbul.
On one radio episode of Dead Ringers
Dead Ringers (comedy)
Dead Ringers is a UK radio and television comedy impressions broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and later BBC Two. The programme was devised by producer Bill Dare and developed with Jon Holmes, Andy Hurst and Simon Blackwell. It starred Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Phil Cornwell, Kevin Connelly and Mark Perry...
, The Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
(voiced by Jon Culshaw
Jon Culshaw
Jonathan Peter Culshaw is an English impressionist and comedian. He was educated at St Bede's RC High School, Ormskirk and St John Rigby College, in Orrell, Wigan....
) 'phoned up Dickinson to ask him how much he could get for a Magnetic Core Extractor that was believed to be owned by the Doctor when he was Jon Pertwee
Jon Pertwee
John Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
. Dickinson described it as "a bit of a bobby dazzler".
Personal life
Dickinson met his wife-to-be, Lorne Lesley, a cabaret performer, in a nightclub in the 1960s, and they married in 1968. As a wedding gift Lorne gave David an antique regency mourning ring, set with a rose cut diamond. Lorne is of African, Welsh and Scottish ancestry; she hails from Tiger BayTiger Bay
Tiger Bay was the local name for an area of Cardiff which covered Butetown and Cardiff Docks. It was re-branded as Cardiff Bay following the building of the Cardiff Barrage which dams the tidal rivers Ely and Taff to create a body of water.-History:...
, Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
. The couple live in the village of Bollington
Bollington
Bollington is a small rural town and civil parish in the county of Cheshire, , England, in the unitary authority of Cheshire East. It is located east of Prestbury. In the Middle Ages it was part of the Earl of Chester's manor of Macclesfield., and the ancient parish of Prestbury...
, Cheshire and have two grown-up children, and also grandchildren.
Dickinson's nickname is "The Duke", a reference to his smart but slightly eccentric dress sense. For forty years David has used the same tailor, Chris Nicolaou, who appeared as a guest for David's This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life (UK TV series)
This Is Your Life is a British biographical television documentary, based on the 1952 American show of the same name. It was hosted by Eamonn Andrews from 1955 until 1964, and then from 1969 until his death in 1987 aged 64...
programme.
Until May 2008, he drove a bright blue Bentley Continental GT
Bentley Continental GT
-Flying Spur:The four door Continental Flying Spur saloon was first displayed at the 2005 Geneva Motor Show. The Flying Spur utilizes most of the technical underpinnings of the Bentley Continental GT, and was introduced to European and North American markets in the summer of 2005...
. He owns two vehicles, the first being an eco-friendly electric Smart EV and the second a Reliant Regal
Reliant Regal
The Reliant Regal was a small three-wheeled car manufactured from 1953 until 1973 by the Reliant Motor Company in Tamworth, England. As it was a three-wheeler, and it was fairly lightweight, the vehicle could be driven on a motorcycle licence in the United Kingdom...
van; this van was one of the famous yellow Trotters Independent Traders vans from the sitcom Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...
, which Dickinson bought in 2007 for over £44,000.
Cultural references
In a 2011 episode of the InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
sitcom Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge
Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge
Mid Morning Matters is a Fly on the wall mockumentary series written by Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons and Armando Iannucci, produced by Baby Cow Productions and fully funded by the British arm of Australian Lager giant, Foster's, which resurrects the 90's television character, Alan...
, digital radio
Digital radio
Digital radio has several meanings:1. Today the most common meaning is digital radio broadcasting technologies, such as the digital audio broadcasting system, also known as Eureka 147. In these systems, the analog audio signal is digitized into zeros and ones, compressed using formats such as...
DJ Alan and his co-host Zoe hold a 'Celebrity Forced Mating' text-in contest. The idea of the contest is to speculate on the appearance and character of two given celebrities' offspring. One text suggests the mating of Dickinson and Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
to create an Oompa Loompa, with (as Alan puts it) Minogue contributing the small stature and Dickinson providing the skin colour and facial features.
Audio grabs from Bargain Hunt and other associated Dickinson programs were used on Australian radio program Get This
Get This
Get This was an Australian radio comedy show which aired on Triple M and was hosted by Tony Martin and Ed Kavalee, with contributions from panel operator, the late Richard Marsland...
.