David Dickinson

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David Dickinson MBE
Dickinson filming Dickinson's Real Deal in 2010
Born	David Gulesserian (1941-08-16) 16 August 1941 (age 82) Cheadle Heath, Cheshire, England
Occupations	Broadcaster antiques expert
Years active	1998–present
Employers	BBC (1998–2005) ITV (2006–)
Television	The Antiques Show (1998–2000) Bargain Hunt (2000–2004) The David Dickinson Show (2003) Dickinson's Real Deal (2006–) Name Your Price (2017)
Spouse	Lorne Lesley ​ (m. 1968)​
Children	2
Website	David-Dickinson.net

David Dickinson

In April 2003, Dickinson hosted his own daytime chat show series The David Dickinson Show and in 2017, he presented David Dickinson's Name Your Price for ITV.

Origins

David Dickinson was born in

Dickinson met his wife, 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 Bay, Cardiff. The couple live in the village of Prestbury in Cheshire. They have two grown-up children, and two grandchildren, Miles and Finley. Finley appeared alongside Dickinson on the second series of Big Star's Little Star. Miles, who is now an entrepreneur, featured on Series 20 of BBC's Dragons' Den, becoming the youngest contestant to successfully secure investment from a Dragon.^[3]

Dickinson's nickname is "The Duke", a reference to his wardrobe. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Until May 2008, Dickinson drove a bright blue

In 1998, a chance meeting with a TV producer at a barbecue led to Dickinson's TV appearance, a two-part documentary for the BBC made about him and his preparation for a show at Olympia. 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.

Dickinson came to public attention as an antiques expert on This Morning and BBC Two's The Antiques Show. 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.

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 while 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 BBC One 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 ITV 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. 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.

From 17 May 2010, The David Dickinson Show, a celebrity variety show, was broadcast on ITV for 10 episodes.^{[citation needed]} In 2017, he presented David Dickinson's Name Your Price for ITV.

Catchphrases

• "Real bobby-dazzler" (particularly excellent item). Dickinson's biography is entitled What a Bobby Dazzler.^[4][5]
• "Cheap as chips" (bargain)^[5]
• "See you, and don't be late." or "TTFN, that's ta-ta for now." (Usually at the end of a programme.)

Guest appearances

In 2002, Dickinson appeared as a guest on

In 2004, Dickinson was one of several celebrities to have their portraits painted in the BBC One television series Star Portraits with Rolf Harris,^[6] 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. He appeared in one episode of the ITV drama Heartbeat, playing an antiques dealer.^[7]

Dickinson explored his family background in an episode of the third series of the BBC

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. During the aftermath of the wind up and following the big reveal from Ant & Dec, Dickinson said "you two have done me up like a kipper!"^[9]

He played the Emperor in the third episode of The Keith & Paddy Picture Show ("Return of the Jedi").^[10]

References

External links

• Official David Dickinson website
• David Dickinson at
  IMDb
• "Official "Bargain Hunt" website". Archived from the original on 5 June 2005. Retrieved 2 February 2006.
• Bargain Hunt BBC America (Archived)
• Who Do You Think You Are? - David Dickinson BBC History, 17 February 2011